At Home Doppler

[mrsgtobe97]

So I'm now 10w1d and bought a home Doppler out of curiosity mostly to see if I could hear anything, the only thing I'm picking up is like the noise of wind and my heartbeat 😅 I know the baby is only about 2-3cm so was a long shot, has anyone used one and found one early?

They’re not safe so please don’t use it

Midwives don't even use dopplers until 16 weeks.
It's not recommended that you use dopplers unless you've had training because they can cause a lot of anxiety and give false reassurance.

@Nightmanagerfan oh really?

Yeah, I'm not too worried tbh and have a scan booked for next week anyway and no worrying signs. Was more just curiosity!

This is really not a good idea!

Don’t use it. I have a friend who did (against advice!), thought she was hearing the baby’s heartbeat. It wasn’t and baby had died.

I wish they would ban these things for home use 😔

I’m personally on the minority here. So long as you use it as a for fun item, I don’t see the problem. I have used them in the early weeks for all of my pregnancies.

The issue is using it for reassurance in place of real midwife care when further along. This must never be done obviously.

Anyway, sometimes it is easier to pick up the heartbeat after a large glass of water. Start at the pubic done and go slowly.

Absolutely don’t use these plus they’re really loud to the baby

You are way too early to find a heartbeat with a home doppler. I totally understand how curious it and exciting it is though. I purchased one at 17 weeks and only occasionally found the heartbeat. No sooner had I found it, the baby would move away so I suspect it's very loud to them.
I started to feel movement last week which was reassuring so I doubt I'll use the doppler again but the few times I did find it gave me reassurance so I guess we are all different.

No no no. You don’t have a clue what you’re doing.

I can't tell you how sad these make me. I've lost count of the amount of women I've looked after who bought a Doppler for reassurance and were listening to their own heart beat or blood flow in the placenta and the baby had died.

Please don't use it. When you are far enough along to feel movements go with that.

Best thing to do is bin it

No sooner had I found it, the baby would move away so I suspect it's very loud to them.

It's ultrasound, the noise you hear is created by the machine.

OP

Doppler is used to measure the movement of red blood cells which is why it can be used to check for blood flow in the legs.

I trained in cardiac ultrasound so my knowledge of use in pregnancy is minimal but my gut reaction is that it should be limited. There is some evidence that the U/S used in physio can cause tissue damage

I know the dopplers are 2-3 Hz so much lower than other transducers but I wouldn't risk it.

Having said all that, congratulations.

I used one regularly during twin pregnancy but I know what I'm listening for and can distinguish what's what. To the point when on the Dawes Redman machines in hospital I'd tell the midwives where the babies were and adjust the location myself. I would still never use it for reassurance only a bit of fun really. If you went in for monitoring in a hospital you would be on the machine for minimum 20 mins until the machine had detected that certain criteria had been met - I was regularly on them for over an hour. So that shows a few minutes with a Doppler isn't a diagnostic tool - it can only tell you what the heartbeat is at that precise moment not if there are any issues

Thanks, I haven't tried it again and have boxed it up for a couple weeks, I have a scan booked for next week anyway. I was more just curious at what week people pick anything up but I seem to have opened a can of worms on here. 😳

I only tried it this week as I saw a lot of videos online of people finding them at 10 weeks so thought I'd try aswell

@mrsgtobe97 no can of worms has been opened. Use it if you really want to but don't rely on it. The evidence is there for you to read about the risks of relying on hearing heart beats from using a Doppler. Tell your midwife you've got one but she'll say the same thing. It's not advised.

You do you though