The Pinard stethoscope: still an essential skill for new midwives
- Monaghan, Ali
The Pinard stethoscope has been an essential tool for auscultating the fetal heart rate (FHR) and assessing fetal well-being since its invention in 1896 by French obstetrician Adolphe Pinard (). As a traditional midwifery skill, auscultation with a Pinard stethoscope has been taught to midwives in the UK for over a century, and is still a requirement for pre-registration midwifery education today (). While some practitioners have begun to question the use of the Pinard stethoscope in modern maternity care (), many midwives find the Pinard stethoscope indispensable to their practice (, ) and its use is still supported by current National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) (, , ). The Pinard stethoscope was chosen as the topic of this essay because of its historical significance and low-tech simplicity, and because there is an art to its use that only comes from experience and continued skill development; it represents true expertise that must be learned and practised to attain mastery.