Irregular heartbeat on home Doppler

[FredFlintstonesSister]

I got a Doppler during my first pregnancy because I had an anterior placenta which meant it was about week 27 before I felt any movement. The home Doppler eased my anxiety until I could feel the baby move for myself. This pregnancy I haven't really used it. Over the weekend, however, I felt less movement than usual so I used the Doppler in the hope it would make me feel better. Instead, I heard a very definite and consistent irregularity in the heartbeat. I saw my midwife to get her to check because of reduced movement but didn't mention heartbeat because I thought she'd disaprove of me having a Doppler. I heard the irregular heartbeat on her Doppler too but she didn't mention it and said everything sounded great! Movement is back to normal now but I am so anxious. I'm 20 weeks tomorrow and dreading my scan on Tuesday. Anyone else have irregular heartbeat that turned out to be nothing? Really worried.

I had home Doppler with all of mine! I could find heartbeats from 10 weeks with them all. One of my DC is disabled so helped with extreme anxiety through the next pregnancy.
For me they have been amazing.
Midwives don't use them until later in case they do cause anxiety but if you know where your baby is then it's usually easy to find.
Give you're midwife a call and just explain. If she flames you then .... Ignore her. You are doing this for you not her! We all have our own methods of coping! Good luck and best wishes OP!

In case you do come back to the thread OP, was it definitely just the foetal heart you heard? Is there any chance it could have been your own pulse, placental blood flow, hiccups, movement etc?
Ring your midwife and get checked out if you're worried. Try just to concentrate on the movement pattern instead.

Fred it's a tricky thing asking MN for advice on a medical matter if you're anxious as you may end up with opinion and conjecture which will possibly feed your anxiety. But I understand your need to find out if this has happened to others.

Reassurance is what you need and if you don't get any sense out of your midwife then perhaps ask for the discussion to be escalated to the doctor?

For some home dopplers provide comfort. For others they can trigger anxiety where it's misplaced because of the situation you describe.

Good luck and I hope you get the clear answer from the professionals you need.

Ps: be honest about the doppler as the professionals may be able to give you informed advice and guidance on the most effective way to use it.

I used a Doppler and found it really reassuring as I was so anxious before I felt movement.

If I were you I would tell the midwife and not care if she rolled her eyes. Or say someone lent it to you. This is your state of mind and your baby. You won't have been the first.

There was another thread with a woman whose baby had an irregular heartbeat and lots of people commented saying theirs did too and it is apparently quite common. But if I were you I would still ask and get checked again because you wouldn't be able to live with yourself if something happened just because you were too embarrassed to admit to owning a Doppler.

Hope all is well. X