Fetal doppler advice

[Pregnantandfreakingout]

Hi ladies, can I have your advice please.
I'm 13 weeks pregnant, for various reasons I'm quite anxious. I've purchased a fetal doppler to check on the baby's heartbeat but although I think I found it once yesterday I haven't been able to find it since. I'm just wondering what everyone's views are on these please.

Just to add I'm overweight with a retroverted uterus which I know makes matters more complicated.

Doppler's are known to create anxiety as for an untrained person, it is quite tricky to find the correct heartbeat/the babys heartbeat so the user often panics.

Don't worry yourself. It's likely you just can't find it. These pieces of kit aren't really a good idea if you are already a little anxious

Throw it away and ask your midwife for a check because of your anxiety

Bin it and don't use it again.

Agree with the others, get rid it won't do you any favours at all.

Thank you so much everyone, I think it's creating more anxiety. I had a private scan on Thursday and the baby was fine. I'm incredibly worried ill miscarry but I know that I can't do anything about it.

I have a telephone appointment with the perinatal team next week

Throw it away!

An at home Doppler is bad for two reasons; you can’t find a heartbeat and it causes anxiety, or you do find a heartbeat and have false reassurance in a situation you may normally seek help. If you are concerned about lack of movement and the hear a heartbeat yourself, it doesn’t necessarily mean the baby isn’t in distress; a trained professional can pick this up

There is a reason they aren't recommended OP. You'll drive yourself mad. My midwife who has 10 years experience took a good few minutes to find my baby's heartbeat at 15 weeks. NICE don't even recommend trained midwives listen for it at the 16 week apt anymore so without training doing it on yourself you're really going to struggle. Please get rid of it.

Seek help for aNxiety
HVing newborn and child will provide
Plenty to be anxious about so you need strategies to manage

Find out what signs of miscarriage are
So you know
Healthy scan last week and no cramps or bleeding right now are surely signs everything is OK

Sometimes the sounds that you pick up can be the blood going through your aorta or the placenta. It sounds similar to a baby's heartbeat but it's not. Don't risk it if you don't know what you're listening for, it can give a lot of false reassurance.

I’m in the same position. 13-14 weeks, tilted uterus and got a Doppler from another mum which I didn’t think was working as it wasn’t consistently getting anything above 100 bpm. I had a checkup Friday and the doctor found the heartbeat with one quickly but said he’s constantly moving/she had to follow him about. The heartbeat was the same rate as what I found at home. It caused me a lot of stress and anguish at home when trying to use it though. I think I’m going to listen to everyone I asked at the time and put it away. The doctor said in 5 weeks there should be definite movements felt. I didn’t tell her I had a Doppler as I knew she wouldn’t approve, and honestly I’m taking it as a sign that I shouldn’t have one at all.

@madeleine85 your babies heart beat is less than 100bpm and your doctor isn’t worried?

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

Kicks count are very against Dopplers as not only do they create anxiety, the other end of the scale is they can create a false sense of security.
Definitely ditch it :)

Don’t use a Doppler!
As midwives we listen in for a minimum of one minute. This is so we can count the heart rate and listen for any accelerations and decelerations to check baby is not distressed.
Do you know what your baby’s heart rate should be? Do you know if it should accelerate or decelerate? Do you know how the placenta sounds?
Just bin it and if worried, call your midwife

@Nikki037297 sorry I meant Im only picking up mine (less than 100 is adult). My baby is 146 which the dr can find easily and I can’t so I’m going to stop using my Doppler. The only reason I’d keep it is to let me daughter hear a heartbeat when we’re much further through (for fun), but it might be easier to let her feel kicks later on instead.

@madeleine85 ok I thought you meant your doctor found the heart rate and it was below 100 and they thought that’s as ok. Yes adult heart rates should be 60-100, a baby should be much faster, my last baby was 165. I have had dopplers in my pregnancy and have always picked up the baby heart beat at 9 weeks it’s an amazing experience but it took me a while to get the hang of it with my first baby but with my next pregnancies I picked up up after searching for a short while. It is nice just to listen there is no harm in that but if you can’t find it it’s no good worrying and it’s not good to use them if your worried such as because your baby movements have became fewer. That will be lovely for your daughter to listen too it makes it very real when you hear the baby heart beat

As a midwife I have cared for a woman who’s baby was stillborn after she used a home doppler for reassurance and didn’t seek help. She now campaigns to have them banned from sale. It’s really not worth it!