Listening to baby heartbeat with stethoscope.

[chxjw]

Posted here in the hope of more traffic.

Did anyone listen to baby's HB with a normal medical stethoscope? If so, how many weeks were you?

I've been trying since about 19 weeks in the hope that I'll find it but I haven't yet

Currently 23+1

Put the stethoscope down. I know it’s tempting, but it could worry you when there’s no need (baby might be in a funny position) or reassure you when you actually need to see somebody (you could be hearing the placenta).

It's dangerous. There's a reason you are advised against trying to listen to the heartbeat yourself.

If you’re not medically trained you won’t have a clue what to listen for.

If you are medically trained you should know better.

Please don’t do this, it can offer false reassurance that everything is tickety boo when it’s not.

A stethoscope? Do you mean a doppler? I don't think a stethoscope would pick up a babies heartbeat would it? I've certainly never heard of it being something that would work.

My DH is a doctor so we have a stethoscope lying around. He could find it, but I could barely tell where it was even after he’d found it for me, let alone having a try myself. I think we did it once or twice just to see if it was possible. Not really worth it. Your baby will start to really move soon and keeping track of their patterns of movement is much more important.

You really cannot find a baby's heartbeat with a normal binaural stethoscope. Maybe on a very rare occasion. You can however find it with the inner tube of a loo roll...

Monitor movement patterns, not trying to listen to the FH. You won't be successful and it will just wind you up and make you anxious.

"You can however find it with the inner tube of a loo roll..." --> yes, but good luck trying to listen to your own baby at 20 weeks like this LOL

OP, it is possible to hear your baby's heart with a normal stethoscope but 20 weeks is too early, the baby is very small, it's very low in your abdomen (below the belly button) and is in constant movement, so the stethoscope won't be able to pick the beats for more than half a second and even so, only when the baby's back is towards the front of your uterus. Once the baby is bigger and stays in the same position for longer periods of time you could listen with a stethoscope situated over the baby's shoulder or hip, however in order to do this you would need to be able to find where the hip or shoulders are. Not worth the anxiety, really.

You need a doppper. Just wait you should hear it at 24week appointment, and would have been able to see it at 20 week scan

Are you feeling really anxious op? Because in some areas you can go to a midwife drop in and they will listen to the heartbeat for you- is there anything like that you could go to?

A stethoscope won't work. Needs to be a Doppler. Even then you need training. You could easily pick up your own heartbeat, the placental blood flow or the baby's.

Don't risk it.

Hi all, got to hear baby's heartbeat with a Doppler sooner that I thought.

Was admitted to hospital last night with a severe water infection