how reliable are home fetal dopplers?? im worried bout the reault on mine!!

[mrsR1991]

i borrowed a fetal heart doppler from a friend. first time i used it on monday had a 120bpm but when i used it this morn it was only 73bpm!!! are home dopplers reliable?? i'm 15+3 an don't have a midwife appointment till i'm 24 weeks and my scan is still a while away....will use doppler again in a sec to see what comes up

You can hear hb really well on mine but the speed it registered was all over the place everytime I've used it to the 00 point sometimes so I've just ignored that aspect, they are obviously not going to be a high grade as they arnt that expensive, I'm 26wks btw and mw never indicated any problems when she's listened

it's just that the heartbeat sounded slower than last time too. sounded really fast last time but this time it was a lot slower i even wondered if it was mine but that was the only heartbeat i found!

In my trust MWs don't attempt to find the hb before 20 weeks because its so hard to find reliably.

More trouble than they're worth, home dopplers.

Call your MW if you're worried.

my midwife checked heartbeat at my last appointment and it was fine. just checked it again and it said 124bpm so i think i'm just not going to bother with it. will probs make me more worried. thanks anyway girls

Don't worry you are probably just picking up your own heart beat as the average adult heart beat is around 70bpm. I have a doppler and its always much easier to find my heartbeat than the babys, I usually have to try for a while before I can pick hers up. x

It's most likely that its your own heartbeat you found and baby was just tucked away out of reach, I got my Doppler about 14 weeks, at first I found baby trailer away no problems but a few times its taken ages and been harder to find, a few days ago took me ages and ages but I found baby eventually. I'm 19+2. Hope that helps xx

Straight * not trailer lol

It is hard even for midwives to find heart beat til baby bit bigger as they can tuck themselves away. You might have picked up your own heartbeat or the placenta. Try not to worry. I won't get a home Doppler as think it would just make me panic!

I would stop trying to use it, dopplers are unreliable so early in pregnancy, even in experienced hands.

i have decided not to use it. im a worrier anyway so not being able to find baby would just make me panic after this morning. my placenta is right at the front too. thanks for the replies anyway :)