The act of throwing into stark relief the unreliability of intrapartum EFM as a predictor of long-term neurological outcome threatens two other much more important beliefs: that the use of EFM can prevent cerebral palsy and that intrapartum asphyxia is the cause of cerebral palsy. It is no wonder that there is resistance to collecting relevant evidence and giving it credence. "I had not properly realised, until this time, the power of wish to distort and deny—and its prevalence in this complex situation, where enthusiasm of doctors and the distress of patients, might lie in an unconscious collusion, equally concerned to wish away an unpalatable truth."
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