Doppler or no doppler?

[Cj0902]

Hi everyone I'm currently in two minds if i should buy a doppler, I'm 17 weeks 2 days and been feeling flutters for a few weeks on and off and very faint but the last two days I haven't felt anything and I've been so upset with worry, I have called the maternity assessment unit and they told me not to worry but I can't help it, it's really stressing me out and I'm so worried I feel like the only thing I can do to help me ease my worry is to buy a doppler but I've heard so many bad things about them! Shall I just ask the hospital to try and listen or shall I just try and put it all to the back of my head and have faith all is ok? I only had a scan 6 days ago and everything was fine but I still can't help worrying what a wrong with me!?! Hope you can all help

I had one in my first pregnancy (after 3 miscarriages) and I’ll use it again this pregnancy (after a further 2 miscarriages) I found it reassuring during that 2nd trimester when you’ve got no scans coming up, fewer symptoms and not feeling movements yet. I found it very reassuring.

You just have to be sensible about it. You’re not guaranteed to find a heartbeat every time and you have to be able to accept that and not panic. It’s not a guarantee that everything is ok either when you hear a heartbeat so shouldn’t be used late in pregnancy and never instead of talking to you midwife if you have concerns about anything. However for me I was having a lot of anxiety in those weeks between appointments where nothing was happening. This was something I could actually do during those times and that helped me more than just waiting and worrying. It might not be the same for you though as everyone’s different.

Please please speak to your midwife about the anxiety if you haven’t already. Mine have always been happy to schedule in a few extra appointments which is so so much better than a home Doppler (I can see pp has already linked to the brilliant Kicks Count charity) and, once you’re past about 24 weeks the DAU/MAU will always be more than happy to check and do a CTG and any further checks needed if you’ve any change in movement. As pp said it really isn’t just the heartrate alone they look for, they can check if it’s healthy and that baby is responding. I have had a - to me - perfectly healthy looking CTG (lovely strong looking 150/160 ish, so would, I imagine, have been reassured by a Doppler). My midwife was unhappy with it as it didn’t seem to vary the way it should and so I was referred immediately for a scan and further checks. Everything was fine in the end but I would so much rather have had those checks to be safe.

Doppler and I’m 16 weeks. I have been using it for a few weeks now to listen to my baby, you don’t need trained to use it, it’s not rocket science, my heart beat is around 80 and often picked up on the Doppler and of course I know it’s mine and not my baby. My baby has a heart rate of around 165 so I know when I find him.

Actually you don't. Ultrasound (and Doppler is a type of ultrasound) works by sending sound waves out, when these hit structures in the body part of the signal is reflected back and part continues on. The sound that passes on then hits another structure and part is reflected and part carries on. It is VERY easy to get a 'double' signal, ie your own heartbeat being counted twice.

It is also easy to pick up the umbilical cord which pulses at the same rate as the heart.

Personally I would be wary of any form of ultrasound outside the hospital. Ultrasound can be used in physiotherapy, how do you know your Doppler is at a safe level? What happens it it starts working like a physio's equipment.

Even if it works as it should we do not know if there are any long term effects from repeated ultrasound.

At 19/20 weeks I had a consultant appointment, the MW couldn't find a heartbeat with the Doppler, she tried various angles for quite a while. I then had to sit for 5mins waiting for a mobile ultrasound machine to be free, MW eventually returned with consultant and machine, clearly expecting the worst... DD was totally fine.

This was an experienced MW using hospital grade machinery on a healthy baby and slim healthy mother.

Longest 5mins of my life.

@Girlwiththearabstrap LILS. You are 100% right!

(LOLS) Bloody autotype.

Midwives understand anxiety and the reasons people want to use home dopplers. If it was a good idea they'd recommend it, they don't tell you not to do it just to keep them in a job, there's good reason for it.

Another one divided on this. Dopplers do indeed cause a lot of anxiety, and it is indeed easy to think you’re listening to baby’s heartbeat when it’s actually something completely different.
But it annoys me when people trot out this whole spiel like using a Doppler is practically guaranteed to have some terrible consequence. Okay, there might be a small minority of people who use a Doppler as reassurance for reduced movements or the like. But generally, the posts on here are from people in their first trimester or early second trimester, they specify they would never use it in place of proper medical checks, and yet they still get jumped on. I can tell you that there is absolutely fuck all a midwife is capable of doing if you’re going to have an early (1st tri) miscarriage, heartbeat or no. It will make zero difference to the outcome of a pregnancy whether you use a Doppler or not. If you’re going to miscarry, you’re going to miscarry. If a home Doppler makes people feel better in those crap, scary early weeks, well, I just can’t bring myself to get particularly worked up over it. As long as people are 100% clear that the Doppler should never be used in place of movement monitoring further on in the pregnancy, then honestly the worst case I can see is that people get falsely reassured in the early days and then go on to miscarry anyway, which, while obviously very sad, is not an outcome that will change regardless of whether or not you use a Doppler.

Ive typed this several times and not posted.

A dying baby has a heartbeat until it stops beating.

If dopplers were a good idea then why is one of the biggest charities known to pregnant women appealing to the house of commons to have them banned on our shelves.

Midwives will understand if you have anxities please speak to your midwife.

@Loosemoose28 it's true. I would imagine they will be banned in a few years, midwifes and medical professionals are completely against them

Four for you - if it were a minority of people using them in place of getting advice then I don't think there would be such a campaign to get them banned by medics.

Read the posts properly. I actually said that they don't cause any negative outcomes, but that having a late loss when you think you've heard the heartbeat is probably more distressing than it would have been otherwise. The other negative implication is women phoning demanding to be checked early because they can't find a heartbeat on the doppler early second trimester and are understandably anxious. That can, and does happen and can put a strain on already stretched maternity services.

Midwives understand anxiety. If they thought that cheap home use dopplers used by a untrained

Sorry posted too soon. If midwives thought that dopplers were a genuine way to ease anxiety there would be more of a recommendation to use them.