Breathing/oxygen/movement monitors

[Bubbles021]

Hi all,
I'm 34 weeks pregnant and preparing for our little one. She is our rainbow baby after losing our first baby last year at 33 weeks, so we've both been anxious throughout the pregnancy (we've had lots of support). Although we've passed the point of pregnancy where our son died, I'm still so worried about losing our little girl as loss has been our only experience of pregnancy.
I'm very conscious of the fact that these worries won't disappear when the baby arrives, and I've been researching different things that monitor the baby's heart rate/oxygen/movements. I've been looking at the owlet sock, the snuza and the mats that you place in the baby's bed.
I just wanted to know if anyone had experience of these and what they'd recommend? I'm leaning towards the snuza as I feel the owlet may add to my anxiety if the stats are sent to your phone. I know not everyone will agree with these devices, but if I want to be able to enjoy my baby and not feel anxious 24/7! Thank you for your help 💙

Hi, gentle congratulations on your pregnancy and so sorry for the loss of your little one. Not long to go now. My first was stillborn at full term in 2020 and we are so grateful to have our second who was born earlier this year. I can't give advice on the monitors but that's something I wondered about while pregnant but decided to wait and see. Having baby here and being able to see them physically at just a glance is amazing after such an anxious pregnancy and I actually think a monitor would increase my anxiety personally. People need to do what's right for them and I'm sure others will come and give you advice but hopefully when baby is here safely you will feel more relaxed. All the very best.

We used a Snuza and it made me able to relax more. Stopped using it around 5/6 months when they kept rolling onto their fronts and knocking it off so the alarm went off! I found it reassuring.

Thank you both! I may wait until she's here and see how I'm feeling. I guess the good thing these days is pretty much everything is next day delivery if I feel I'm not coping! I appreciate both of your help 💙

I found having a movement mat really helpful with my first as a gentle easy to notice reassurance that they were still breathing if I randomly woke up in the night rather than being woken for a feed. It took a while and being more awake to tune out DH's breathing by which time I was awake and it was tougher to get back to sleep!

My second did not do sleeping in the cot so no use for him...

I can completely sympathise with how stressful pregnancy after loss is, I’m currently 36 weeks with our hopeful rainbow after losing our first baby at 29 weeks last year. Funnily enough, we have a Snuza being delivered today. I just felt it would be something which would reassure us and hopefully let us relax a little more when baby is here, knowing I won’t have to stay awake and watch them to make sure they’re breathing. It probably sounds irrational to anyone whose not been through loss, but the anxiety and worry of having a rainbow really does make you feel differently about things. Good luck with whatever you decide, it’s a really personal decision and anything which can provide reassurance will be worth it I feel ❤️

We had the Owlet which was really good. We never had a red notification from it, got the odd 1 or 2 notifications when the sock wasn’t on properly but it differentiates between that and an actual alert so it doesn’t panic you and problem solved by putting an actual sock on top. What you get on your phone isn’t anxiety inducing I don’t think, it just means that you get notifications when away from the base station, and gives you average stats but they in themselves don’t really tell you anything you don’t already know, because if the readings weren’t normal it would have already altered you. We also had a Nanit (promise we’re not panicky weirdos, my DH just loves a bit of tech) and whilst the breathing monitoring on that is crap, the sleep insights and tracking are truly fascinating!

So sorry for your loss. We had a snuza and liked it. It did go off a couple of times though when she moved and it ended up moving away from her tummy. But if you're prepared for that (doesn't make it any less scary when it happens!) then it's good. The only other thing is that when she started moving around about 6 months old or so we had to stop using it and didn't feel quite ready to at that point.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

My daughter was born extremely prematurely and came home on oxygen. We were terrified, so bought the Owlet sock so we could keep an eye on her oxygen saturation and heart rate.

We had at least three false alarms over several months. We woke in the night to the alarm and my first question was always "is she breathing?" even though her crib was right next to our bed. She was, thankfully, and on two of those occasions, the oxygen cannula which goes from the tubing into her nose had dislodged, meaning she wasn't getting the oxygen and thus, her oxygen levels had dropped and triggered the alarm. We were quickly able to identify the problem and pop the cannula back in her nose in seconds. On the other occasion(s), it went off simply because she was having a good wriggle.

I always maintained that I'd much rather be woken by false alarms than NOT woken in a genuine emergency.

It is vital to point out that these devices do not protect babies from SIDS. If a baby's heart stops due to the causes of SIDS - and some of those causes are still believed to be unknown - it's unlikely the baby can be saved even though EVERY parent, guardian or carer would try (as they should).

I'm 33 weeks pregnant and we're going to buy a new Owlet sock for this baby nearer his arrival too. We're hoping he won't need oxygen of course, or have any other serious medical needs, but the sock DID give us a little bit of extra peace of mind to the point we weren't terrified to both sleep at the same time. Had we not had the Owlet sock for our daughter, we probably would have spent months and months taking it in turns to sleep whilst the other watched over our sleeping baby. It would have been extremely difficult and not practical in the slightest.

We have the owlet. I extensively researched all options and it was the only one that I was happy with. We love it - daughter has a lot of health issues and it is always spot on when the ambulance come and try their machines too, so much so that they often just ask for our readings now. My only complaint has been that our sensor broke at 20months and they tried to suggest I had to buy another one, I had to kick up a huge stink before they would replace it for free. But they did and we are back to loving it again.

The owlet camera is apparently useless so we bought a bt 6000 instead which we also love.