I need some help! Please !

[emi1998]

I'm currently 18 weeks pregnant with my first baby, this is my second pregnancy however I unfortunately had a missed miscarriage earlier in the year.

As you can imagine I'm incredibly worried about this pregnancy and my baby. I went for a checkup yesterday as I had a feeling something just wasn't right, the doctor checked the heartbeat and it sounded very strange. I've heard my little boys heartbeat before and it was a nice galloping heartbeat with a lot of wooshing sounds. This heartbeat sounded much slower than with no other sounds, the doctor said it was 148bpm and perfectly normal. She also checked my cervix and said it looked closed and perfectly okay.

I've been under some very very bad stress recently and I was just wondering if anyone knows whether

1.) stress can cause a miscarriage?

2.) whether my heartbeat can be mistaken for baby's on a fetal doppler?

Any advice would be great, my mind is racing thinking about what could be.

The whooshing sounds typically come from the placenta (placental blood flow), so if you had those previously along with the HB then they were picking up both which is just positional. The HB alone will be the galloping sound, and if the doctor said it was 148 then I am sure it was - if it was bradycardic (slow) or otherwise concerning then I'm sure they wouldn't say it was fine.

After a MC it's so understandable you'd be worried and on high alert, but with the facts as you know them now please trust that the vital stats were normal. I can completely understand your worry, sending you calming energy.

Also, your heart rate is very unlikely to be racing at 148 beats per minute, you'd be very unwell in that case. Please try to stay calm. Stress is never good for the body but you won't cause a miscarriage by worrying, just try to minimise stress for your own well-being as a healthy, happy you is best for baby, too.

Stress won’t cause a miscarriage. I had a really stressful time a few weeks ago, and it was really intense on me mentally and physically. I had the same fears about the baby, especially as I had reduced movement too.

The midwives reassured me that stress won’t cause a miscarriage. They said at most, the baby will be exhausted in the womb, and will be sleeping more, which is why I hadn’t felt him move. Please don’t worry about stress causing a miscarriage.

Also, whilst a Doppler can pick up your heartbeat, your heart beats a lot slower than the baby’s heartbeat. As PP said, your heart won’t be going at 148 beats per minute - you’d probably be having a heart attack if it was! So on that basis, feel assured that it was the baby’s heartbeat that was picked up yesterday.

I'm having boy/girl twins - in the early weeks they sounded exactly the same but as pregnancy has gone on they sound distinctly different - the boy one is generally
Slower and around the 148 mark too. The girl sounds much more like galloping horses and is generally faster

I wouldn't worry too much if the doctor says everything sounds fine