Midwives not to listen to heartbeat anymore????

[emkana]

A friend of mine is 11 weeks pregnant and went to see her midwife this week. Apparently the midwife said to her that it was new policy that the midwives would only listen to the heartbeat at ante-natals if the mother requested it. The doctor would not listen to the heartbeat. They would only measure the fundus (is that the word I'm thinking of? Looks wrong, please correct me) to monitor growth.

Is that true?????????
I would be amazed if it is! Funnily enough the midwife never measured me during my two pregnancies, only listened to the heartbeat.
Found it so reassuring, too, and would definitely insist on it if I was pregnant again!

[fio2]

I would have thought 11 weeks is just too early sometimes to hear the heartbeat so they are leaving it later

[emkana]

No, she was talking about future appointments, not this one.

[Chandra]

I'm shocked, I still don't understand why they don't do monthly scans as a standard as in most first world countries and many third world ones and now not even this??? I understand there's a expense on scans but on hearing a heart....please!!

[nutcracker]

I would insist too. I thought it was bad enough when they got rid of the kick chart (was the only indictor my friend had that there was a problem).

[dinosaur]

I'm 21 weeks pg and I haven't been told that. Very surprised that they wouldn't listen to heartbeat in later pg - but agree 11 weeks is prob too early.

[suedonim]

Not everyone believes frequent scans are a good idea. There are some interesting articles on the AIMS site here . My own anecdotal experience is that the two pg's in which I was scanned have produced left-handed children. Who knows if other, unseen, changes may have been caused, too?

[Heathcliffscathy]

i was also told by my indep midwife that scans were to be as limited as possible, including using ultrasound heart monitor as there was no really comprehensive research into safety and babies obviously don't like it...having said that i found hearing the heart regularly immensely reassuring, especially when i was having a bit of a meltdown cause i thought something was wrong...

[dinosaur]

Thick question here - when midwife listens to heartbeat, is that the same technology as in a scan? I always assumed it was a more "low-tech" method.

[MrsDoolittle]

Suedonim - you've gotta be winding us up?!

[piglit]

It's impossible to know what to do for the best! I have found my scans very reassuring, especially after my scare and I am much clamer and more relaxed as a result. I think a lot of it depends on the type of person you are - I am a real worrier and need reassurance. As with a lot of things it seems to be a question of balancing the pros and cons.

[MrsDoolittle]

Dinosaur- you are right. The doppler method the midwife uses is the ultrasound, the scan you see in hospital is known as the duplex scan where the technology produces a picture also. Both use ultrasound.

[dinosaur]

Thanks - well, in that case, prob best to keep ultrasound of any kind to a minimum then.

[smellymelly]

Suedonim

Who told you that scans during pregnancy produce left-handed children ???????

[Lesley76]

I've never heard of this. I'm 37 weeks preg & all my antenatal checks (at GP or hospital) have been the same - blood pressure, urine test, measure fundus, feel for position of baby and listen to fetal heartbeat with hand held monitor (Doppler?). I found it reassuring in the early stages to hear the baby's heartbeat, but since I've been able to feel movement, I don't worry as I tend to assume its Ok (very wriggly baby!!!).

[Linnet]

In my first pregnancy I had two scans as usual. With this pregnancy there have been problems and I've had 6 scans, but that is all there are going to be now as we know that everything is ok. It's been very reassuring for us to have these extra scans.

I've been getting the usual 4 weekly check ups with my gp and everytime I'm in she tests blood pressure, measures bump, checks position and listens to the heartbeat with the dopplar sp? The one thing that she doesn't do this time round is weigh me as they don't do that anymore but I ask to be weighed while I'm there because I'm nosey but they don't write it on my notes. It's nice to hear the heartbeat, but like Lesley my baby wriggles a lot so I know that it's ok. If there was a drop in movements though I'd be asking to hear the heartbeat.

If I was to have a 3rd baby, which is not likely to happen, but if I did and they said that they weren't going to listen to the hearbeat I would insist on it.

[twiglett]

message withdrawn

[suedonim]

SM, the ref about lefthandedness is in one of the links below. It doesn't mean all scanned children will be lefthanded but there has been a rise. In my case, I had no scans with babies 1&2 and they are r-handed, scanned with 3&4 and they are l-handed, with no family history of lhanders. But as I say, my experience is just anecdotal.

[stupidgirl]

I too would be a little nervous about too many scans in pregnancy. I had I think 7 altogether in my first pg as ds had a cleft. He now has suspected aspergers. Maybe a coincindence, maybe not.

[Mog]

I had the normal routine hospital scans (2)but asked the midwife/GP not to use the doppler on routine antenatal visits. I'd read about the possible adverse affects and just didn't think it was worth even a very small risk when I knew the baby was fine because I could feel it moving. If you really want to know the heart beat the midwife can listen the old-fashioned way with a Pinard I think it is called. Or the doctor can use a stethescope in the latter stages. I think if I remember rightly the hand-held doppler used at the doctors is 'stronger' than hospital scans, but don't quote me on that one.

[GeorginaA]

This thread has got me really worried and upset now. I'm currently in hospital 2 times a week on the fetal heartrate monitor and every other week having an ultrasound with dopplers.

[Mog]

Georgina, I would ask your caregivers why you have to be on the ultrasound doppler. If there is an essential reason, my choice would be to go with it as the links found have only been small studies and the health of your baby is paramount. However, if it is only to monitor heartrate there are other ways to do this as I mentioned below so why not see if this can be done?

[GeorginaA]

it's because of obstetric choelostasis, so the monitoring is "necessary" but it doesn't make me feel much better about damaging my baby in the process

[prufrock]

I hate things like this which are scienifically flawed.
None of the studies done on the effect of ultrasound have been proper controlled randomised studies. Coming to the conclusion that women who have more ultrasounds have more complications ignores the fact that the women are usually havng more ultrasounds because of a pre-existing possibility of complications. I remember the Norwegian study being front page news the day I had my first scan with dd and getting very worried at the headline "ultrasound link to autism" until I read the whole article, which said they had actually found a slight increase in the number of left handed babies born after significant exposure to ultrasound, and extrapolated the link to autism because more laft handed nbabies get autism than right handed babies! And all this from a study of less then 100 pregnancies.

[GeorginaA]

Thanks prufrock

Btw... sent you an email to your work email the other day but you're not collecting them anymore are you? Have you started your maternity leave? (Was just a general thanks sort of email - not important).

[prufrock]

Oops - knew there was something I'd forget to do when I left. My home address is the same surname, at supanet.com.