Abstract
We read with interest the article by Cordes et al.1 This article raises an important issue concerning assumptions made with respect to the significance of intrapartum and neonatal observations. The population of infants studied was 54 full-term newborns born after uneventful pregnancies and diagnosed as having acute hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) that was intrapartum in origin. The underlying assumption of this diagnosis was that if there is no obvious antenatal cause of abnormal neonatal neurological signs, then any suboptimal intrapartum observation identifies the pathology as being intrapartum in origin.
