Recommend a Doppler ?

[457as]

Hello ladies

Can anyone recommend a relatively cheap Doppler that's proven successful & from an early-ish week (12/13+)

Thanks xx

Someone else will come along a put this in a far better way than me but home dopplers are really not advised, they are very hard to use correctly and you risk finding something like your own heart beat or some other bodily function and getting a false sense of security, the only way to check your baby is ok is to count its movements later on in the pregnancy.

I am not sure that any Doppler could find a babies heartbeat at twelve weeks either, that is why midwives don't even attempt to until around 18 weeks I believe (been six years since I was pregnant though!)

I had a doppler used on me when I went to maternity triage, you can hear the placenta-which sounds like a heartbeat, the babies heartbeat and your own heartbeat as well as a whole host of other bodily noises. I really wouldn't advise buying one, you would only km now what to listen out for if you were trained, its not as straight forward as it seems.

My midwife strongly advised against a doppler. She said for someone who isn’t trained it’s easy to either miss the heartbeat and assume something is wrong, or hear the heartbeat and assume everything is fine when there might be other indications that it isn’t (such as reduced movement).

Home Dopplers are frankly dangerous and should be banned for home sale. Please don't buy one. If you have anxieties about your baby's health, see your midwife.

In any case, using them is a skill that you need to be trained in. In all likelihood, most people pick up their own purse or the blood flow of the placenta rather than a baby.

Midwives don't even try to find a heartbeat before 16 weeks, you won't find one with a home one at 12/13.

Just don't, it'll make you anxious and you almost certainly won't know how to use it properly

I can only echo what the above posters have said, please don't buy a home doppler. They cause so much stress and worry, not to mention false reassurance if something is actually wrong. I totally agree that these should be banned for home sale!

Most trusts in the UK now have stopped listening for babies heartbeats at the 16 week appointment as it was so hit and miss. Even a fully trained and experienced midwife could struggle to find it and can you imagine the stress when they had difficulties?

Someone else mentioned the sound of the blood flow from the placenta. I've seen posts saying they're easy to distinguish....not true....i heard both in quick succession at one of my appointments and there's no way my untrained ear.could tell the difference.

I am also currently in hospital due to preeclampsia and am on the ctg monitor several times everyday listening to baby's heartbeat. It is different every single day.....i have learned so much about resting patterns, varying baselines, accelerations, decelerations etc that I had no clue about. Would you know what you were listening for sat at home? Could you identify an issue?

There have been cases of miscarriage and stillbirth linked to home dopplers where mums to be were sat at home and failed to seek medical help after being 'reassured' after hearing 'something' that wasn't the hb at all or indicated a problem that they weren't trained to recognise.

There’s a good article about this here...

www.kickscount.org.uk/why-we-want-home-doppler-sales-to-be-regulated

Don’t buy a Doppler. They’re for medical professionals.