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Original poster

I think somethings happened to the baby and I have to wait until Monday to find out.

122 replies

TippyTinkleTrousers · 30/06/2017 18:25

14+3 weeks.

I've been getting heartbeat on a doppler easily since 9 weeks.

I've had a bad feeling the last few days, something I never got with my other kids. So I tried the doppler today and found nothing. I've been trying since 11am.

I've tried all the tricks in the right places, laying this way and that, pointing it down etc etc and there's absolutely nothing there.

I spoke to EPU but being Friday they can't see me until Monday morning.

It's going to be a long weekend.

Wish I never bought that bloody doppler. I never did with my other pregnancies.

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Gothbaby · 30/06/2017 18:35

Sorry to hear your worries missus! If you are worrying go to hospital! They will see you and put you on a monitor for half and hour.! Best to go and it be nothing then to wait and worry! Xxxx

Original poster
TippyTinkleTrousers · 30/06/2017 18:36

I doubt they will put me on a monitor at 14 weeks.

OP posts:
hashtagcurious · 30/06/2017 18:38

Sorry to hear your worries. I'd go straight in to hospital x

RippleEffects · 30/06/2017 18:38

Do you have an allocated midwife you could call? They may be able to fit in a quick visit or get you in somewhere where someone with a bit more tech and baby experience can do a bit more listening.

gluteustothemaximus · 30/06/2017 18:39

Sometimes even my midwife couldn't find the heartbeat with the doppler. Baby was being a pickle and hiding in really awkward places. It used to take ages.

Have you tried drinking cold water?

Any other symptoms alongside not hearing heartbeat?

x

RockyBird · 30/06/2017 18:40

Phone and ask.

Original poster
TippyTinkleTrousers · 30/06/2017 18:40

My midwife is the only available on Tuesdays.
I called the hospital and the early pregnancy unit and they've booked me in for Monday morning.

They said to go to hospital if I start bleeding and getting pains to the point where I can't cope.

OP posts:
AssassinatedBeauty · 30/06/2017 18:41

There are calls for home dopplers to be banned and I can see why. Midwives don't try and listen for a heartbeat until 16 weeks plus. What has probably happened is a shift of position which means you can't pick up the heartbeat. If you hadn't got the Doppler you wouldn't be aware at all and be having a normal weekend instead of stressing.

I'm sure all will be fine on Monday, a scan will be able to reassure you. Then I would give the Doppler away and get it out of the house.

DebsOctBaby · 30/06/2017 18:42

I know it must be an anxious time but it would be very early for them to listen via a doppler and that's why they don't try and listen this early. Home dopplers are terrible IMO and there is even an article today in the press about trying to ban them. You may not have picked up baby heartbeat before which is causing anxiety now.
I know it's hard (I'm an anxious person) but unless you have stomach pains or blood, try and relax as much as you can and I'm sure everything will be fine x

NotAnotherUserName5 · 30/06/2017 18:42

Get a private scan. That's what I did when I was in that situation. Couldn't bare the wait.

Please don't stress Flowers

WishUponAStar88 · 30/06/2017 18:47

I agree that the use of home dopplers is dangerous and can cause huge amounts of unnecessary concern and at the opposite end of the spectrum potentially false reassurance later on. However there's understandably no way you will be able to relax until Monday and I would book an early scan in a private clinic. A quick google should bring one up near you if you're not too remote. They're generally £50-100. I hope everything is ok for you Flowers

MakeLemonade · 30/06/2017 18:52

Have you tried to get a private scan? I think post-12 weeks they are quite cheap.

I've had for one £40 through ultrasound direct but I'm not sure of the pricing structure.

Fingers crossed for good news. My trust doesn't use a Doppler until further along as it can be unreliable to find in early second trimester, especially if you're not a medical professional!

Original poster
TippyTinkleTrousers · 30/06/2017 18:56

I definitely picked up the babyes heartbeat before. My heartbeat was definitely not 176bpm.

I tried the private ones and I could go tomorrow but I have the kids with while DH is at work and I don't want them to hear any bad news.
And the other one I called isn't open until Tuesday.

I figure that nothing I do between now and then will make any difference to the outcome anyway so I may as well wait until Monday.

I will go to hospital if I start getting bad cramps though, the thought of passing a 14 week fetus with just neurofen seems really scary. I hope they could prescribe something stronger to take home.

I cannot put into words how badly I regret buying a doppler.
I never did with my other children. This baby wasnt planned and I was originally feeling detached and down about it.

I bought the doppler to help me get the reality of it and feel nicer about having a baby.

Instead it's just added to my stress.

OP posts:
TeddyIsaHe · 30/06/2017 19:01

The blood going through the placenta can be mistaken for the baby's heartbeat because it is the same bpm. Honestly, chuck the Doppler away and don't use it anymore. Midwives train for years to be able to dostuinguish the actual heartbeat from countless other pulse sounds in the womb. It is dangerous to use one untrained.

I hope you manage to get sorted, and everything is ok for you Flowers

DebsOctBaby · 30/06/2017 19:05

Sorry that's what I meant, my midwife picked up this really fast heartbeat early on and I thought it was the baby but it was the blood supply in the placenta!
I'm sure everything is fine as you have no other symptoms, chuck the doppler away and come Monday you can share good news with us all xx

Cagliostro · 30/06/2017 19:07

I'm so sorry you are worrying. It is most likely just that baby has moved, when my doctor couldn't find the heartbeat once they did a quick scan and she said Aha! - it was the position baby had moved into. Super qualified consultant and even she couldn't find it, nobody would've been able to with an at home Doppler.

I empathise with the detached feeling as well. Current pregnancy was unplanned for me too and I feel so different, not quite 'with it' and yet more anxious than I ever was with my other two years ago.

Hope all is well x

Original poster
TippyTinkleTrousers · 30/06/2017 19:08

The placenta heartbeat is the same BPM as my heartbeat because it's my body that's doing the work.

My placenta wouldn't pump at 176bpm.

That was my baby's heartbeat.
But I appreciate your post, I appreciate all your posts I know nothing can come of this and nothing you guys can say to change the outcome but it really helps just being able to post my frets.

I've gone from being deeply unsure about being a mother of 3, to desperately wanting this baby like never before.

OP posts:
Original poster
TippyTinkleTrousers · 30/06/2017 19:09

Thank you Cagliostro Flowers

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TeddyIsaHe · 30/06/2017 19:39

No, the placenta does not beat at the same time as you. I'm not trying to be annoying, home Dopplers are dangerous when used by untrained people. There have been so so many cases of women using them to listen into baby, and either panicking because they couldn't find a heartbeat, or not panicking when they thought they could and the worst had happened. There is a very good reason they are currently being discussed as being made illegal to sell! Don't rely on one for your baby's sake, always always get checked out by a midwife if you think something is wrong.

Original poster
TippyTinkleTrousers · 30/06/2017 19:50

I'm not trying to be annoying, home Dopplers are dangerous when used by untrained people
Oh God I know.

I completely agree with you! I didn't appreciate how much what you've said is true until today.
I regret getting one so much.

I feel as though I can't throw it away until Monday in case I find the heartbeat again.

But come Monday no matter what the outcome, it's going straight in the bin.

And if I find the heartbeat in the mean time, it'll go straight in the bin (I realise I'm being ironic here. Or contradictory one of the two).

I definitely don't think you're being annoying.

OP posts:
Lemondrop99 · 30/06/2017 19:55

Why are you waiting until Monday? You should ring the EPU.

3littlebadgers · 30/06/2017 19:57

Please try to keep in your mind that babies can be hard to detect. My last child was tricky to pick up even for the midwives. There were times that I would be in bits before they'd manage to track down a baby heart.

I sympathise completely with the worry Flowers hoping for the best for you

obviouslymarvellous · 30/06/2017 19:57

Op I feel for you I had this with my first pregnancy and I was right (unfortunately) I had a midwife shouting at me telling me I shouldn't use dopplers and how It required training she then said she could hear heartbeat she couldn't! I was right she was wrong... I was 23 weeks. I would trust your gut and go to the hosp and the maternity unit will see you. I used my Doppler for my pregnancies after and my last pregnancy of twins the midwives used to ask me where to put dopplers so they could find heartbeats. I do hope op you are wrong I really do but I would trust your instincts xxx

Original poster
TippyTinkleTrousers · 30/06/2017 20:10

Why are you waiting until Monday? You should ring the EPU. Hmm
I did. As I said, it's the EPU I'm seeing on Monday. They are closed now until then.

obviouslymarvelous I was just thinking then, even though I said I hate the doppler and regret getting it, actually if the baby has died then all the doppler has done has reflect exactly that.
I hope that isn't the case but I still can't find it and I've found it before so I'm not feeling that hopeful to be honest.

OP posts:
hopsalong · 30/06/2017 20:14

I don't think there is any real evidence here that you should be worried. The bad feeling is just a feeling -- there isn't really any way for a woman to know how a pregnancy is going. (If there was there wouldn't be missed miscarriages or women going round oblivious about a healthy embryo developing inside them.)

Is it in fact not the same "bad"
feeling of anxiety/ unease that provoked you to buy the Doppler in the first place? I had a lot of medical anxiety in my recent pregnancy: it was real, and horrible, but it wasn't grounded in actual facts. (If I had trusted my instincts I would have thought I was miscarrying every day in the first trimester -- I did have sporadic bleeding but was repeatedly reassured it came from a smallish hematoma.)

And as others have said the Doppler is not reliable when used by an untrained person. In one of my last antenatal appointments a senior consultant had to show a junior doctor how to find the actual heartbeat instead of the pulse in the cord. Could this have been what you were hearing too? Even at 30 something weeks, and with medical training, it isn't that easy!