A commercially available adult telemetry unit was adapted for use in fetal heart rate monitoring. Advantages included permitting the mother to ambulate during labor, monitoring the fetus while the mother was in transit from the labor to the delivery area and reducing electrical noise levels. Patient as well as physician acceptance has been uniformly excellent. Patients who normally would not have accepted monitoring acceded to the use of the telemetry system when informed that they could move about while in labor. The equipment is easy to adapt, widely available, relatively inexpensive and simple to use.