are home heart monitors any good?

[griffintribe]

I have a dd already and had a missed m/c in feburary.

The baby died at 12.5 weeks but i carried her until 15 weeks with no problems until it was picked up.

I am now 4 weeks pregnant and worried about the same thing happening again.

Considering buying a home heart monitor so i can check that the heart beat is stil there.

Are they any good?

Will they offer any reassurance or will i stress myself out even more?

If they are any good, which kind?

not sure how good they are but there not cheap, though i got one at a local car boot for a pound, but most i have seen, can only be used from 20 wks + so it is nice to have to one but may not be any use for those horrid first trimester worries( i know how u feel)

i am 20 wks and i still cant pick up a heartbeat with mine (although i do have a jelly belly) but can feel really big kicks and movemnts now anyway so not sure if it will even get any use

HTH

ps -come join us on the pregnancy after miscarriage thread on here, there a lovely bunch of ladies all going through the same thing, we have recently had our first graduate, who has given birth to a healthy baby

I wouldn't recommend buying one. I asked the midwife about these as thought it would be nice to record heartbeat etc when pregnant with DS and she said it causes a lot more stress because parents are not trained to feel where the baby is and so may put the monitor where the heart isn't, not hear anything and then get really upset about the baby's health etc and given that you don't want to be stressed in this pregnancy, perhaps its not a good idea.

I really do understand you wanting one though, given you circumstances, but you have to weigh up the stress issue.

All the best with the pregnancy

XXXX