9 weak scan - slow heartbeat

[HashB]

Thanks in advance to anyone who makes it through this essay.

I’ve had previous missed miscarriages so this time round I have quite a few scans booked in to try to avoid the same outcome of weeks passing before I find anything is wrong.

I had a scan 12 days ago with NHS, I thought I was 7+2 they dated me to 6+5. baby measured 6.7mm.
Today, 12d later, I had a private scan, at first she couldn’t find the baby and I had to go for a wee to empty some of my bladder. This was all transabdominal, transvaginal wasn’t an option. Then she found the baby, I still measure 4 days behind but I’m 12mm bigger at 18.8mm. She then commented the ‘heartbeat is there but weak’.
Then she played it out loud, and it did sound sort of slow. More like my heartbeat.

I think she could tell I was freaked out because she kept saying it’s perfectly normal and if it was anything at all concerning she would refer me. She promised me at this stage heartbeats can sound like this, but everyone else seems to show their scans with comments that ‘they’ve got a good strong heartbeat!’

My other half keeps telling me that English wasn’t the scanners first language, it was just unfortunate word choice, that she wasn’t worried. And I’m trying to take comfort from the fact I’ve grown 1mm every day, but I can’t get that heartbeat out of my head.

Has anyone else experienced this at 9w? I’m terrified this is just the start of another miscarriage.

Baby’s heart beat should be double yours.

Did you happen to see how many beats per minute it was? There's usual ranges online for each stage of pregnancy

@Ttcmumma no, I asked her if that’s one of the things the scan could tell me, bpm, and she said no.

Ah damn, mine was on my 12 week scan report so was hoping yours would be on there for you to Google and hopefully settle your mind

@Ttcmumma google says before 10weeks, transvaginal is significantly better at picking up heartbeat than transabdominal.

That briefly made me feel better but then I think, well she did pick up a heartbeat and I heard it, so unless it was only picking up some heartbeats and missing some(not sure that’s even possible) then the heartbeat is the heartbeat?

it feels torturous! But thanks for your replies xx

I wonder if she did in fact pick up your heartbeat, which is easy to do.
I think it’s a good sign that baby is growing.

To be honest, when I had a 6 week scan she saw baby and a heartbeat but would only take measurements via transvaginal as it was too inaccurate to tell. So that could be the issue!

Growth of 12mm in 12 days is perfectly healthy and a great sign that all is well. Try not to panic

Did she mean weak as in difficult to pick up/hear? I think it's more that she's made a poor word choice, especially as she said there was nothing wrong

I would take comfort from the fact that a heartbeat was heard and the baby has grown.

The next bit I say with kindness but I think you should reconsider the frequent private scans you have booked in to supplement the NHS ones. As you have discovered, the sonographers at these commercial scan places aren’t really equipped to give you medical advice or reassurance and I think you run the risk of being upset unnecessarily and causing yourself high levels of anxiety during this pregnancy. It’s always hard after miscarriages and particularly missed miscarriages but I’m not sure this is the answer to address that.

@Ramdogs thanks that’s what I’m trying to tell myself too.

@bumtrumpet firstly, that’s the best username I’ve seen yet. I’m not sure what she meant really cos like I said, when she played it, it did sound slow. I know babies heart rates are meant to be really fast at this point.

@Katrinawaves thanks, but this is the only private scan I’ve got/had. I booked it before I knew the NHS were going to give me 2 scans prior to the 12 week scan. My next one with them is in 8 days time, so I suppose they will tell me one way or the other, just going to feel like a really long week. Especially when I’m as obsessive as I am. X

I’m sorry for your losses. It’s difficult to not panic and worry about things.

I would agree with the others that it was poor word choice. There’s a heartbeat there and I would focus on that just now.
From my experience of previous scans, the sonographers have all been lovely but aren’t actually fully qualified and are currently in training. I only found this out from a friend who was given worrying info which turned out to all be wrong. The sonographer just hadn’t scanned her properly.
It’s slightly put me off private scans as I was having them for reassurance and now not sure I can trust them. I was also told by nhs that they would take private scans with a pinch of salt and would focus solely on their scans, so if I had any worries or was referred by them to my local Epu, then nhs would do their own two scans and ignore the private one.

@Hiddenvoice i didn’t realise that. I assumed if you were performing scans you were fully qualified. Maybe an NHS sonographer making more money privately 🤦🏼‍♀️

I just can’t get out of my head that what she played was slow (for a baby heartbeat). It was more like what I’d expect my heartbeat to sound like.

I’ve tried ringing my EPU to explain and say, if that is the case I know there’s nothing they can do, but could they bring my 10w scan a few days forward so I don’t have as long of a wait x

It usually says on the website if the sonographers are fully qualified or not. I've actually found my private scans to always be far better than the NHS ones but that's probably because the NHS staff in my hospital are quite rude and have no sympathy 😅. I only ever book with private scanners that state they have fully qualified staff only. I used ultrasound direct recently and their technology was also much more advanced than the NHS, the baby was sooo much clearer and they could get measurements much easier.

I guess be careful of where you go and do a fair bit of research into them first. I check qualifications and reviews before even considering booking x

They don’t normally play your baby’s heartbeat for you to hear during an early scan. With both my children I didn’t hear the heartbeat until the midwife found it with the Doppler several weeks later. You can see the heart flashing on the screen, but you don’t hear it.

I suspect she found your own heartbeat, which is very easy to do and it’s also why they advise against mothers having their own Dopplers at home.

I hope your next hospital scan puts your mind at rest X

@Malificent1 is it really that easy to do? You’re the second person to say that and I feel like that’s my one hope. Thank you xx

@Ttcmumma I’ve just gone back and read the website (can’t believe I didn’t do this first and just assumed) but it does say ‘professional and qualified team of sonographers’.

Well I called my EPU this morning to see if they could bring my second scan forward a few days, and their response was, it’s not procedure for you to have this second scan, we don’t know why you’ve been booked in for it so regardless of yesterday we’re cancelling it and you will have to wait til 12 weeks.

So now I’ve got the prospect of a 3 week wait, or another private scan to bridge the gap. Since yesterday didn’t give me the reassurance I was after, I don’t really know what to do 🤷🏼‍♀️

I don’t trust myself to actually miscarry if something has gone wrong. This feels horrendous, I’ve cried my eyes out.

Could you speak to your GP or midwife on Monday and ask for a referral to the perinatal mental health team? It won’t help with getting an additional scan, but you might find their support helpful in managing your anxiety. Lots of people (myself included) find that the hormonal changes on pregnancy does impact their normal coping mechanisms and some additional support and observation during this period can be really helpful.

Just as the pp said, I would contact your midwife tomorrow and explain the situation. They will support your mental health and be able to give you advice. They might not be able to arrange another scan but they will hopefully reassure you.

I'm sorry you are going through all of this stress. For what it's worth I think it's incredibly likely the heartbeat they played you was actually yours. NHS don't usually audio your babies heartbeat until either 16w in some areas, 20weeks in others.

My trust do it at 16weeks but with the caveat that even at that stage it can be incredibly hard to find, mine took five minutes or more of searching to get it.

I never had a private scan offer to play the baby heartbeat that early (and tbh just the fact they did abdominal rather than vaginal scan says that they probably weren't the best sonographer in the world).

Focus on your good, encouraging growth, and that you saw the heartbeat flickering away visually.

FWIW I had a 9 week scan and they didn't play the babies heartbeat, but I could see it flickering on the screen. The fact that your baby is clearly growing is also good news. Hopefully everything goes well for you.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words last week but as an update, I’ve had another missed miscarriage. It’s mixed emotions as I had sort of expected it after my last pregnancies and the scan last weekend, so it hasn’t come as such a shock, but I am all the more worried that something is actually wrong with me.

thanks again for your messages x

@HashB I'm so sorry to hear this, please make sure they do testing and if you're comfortable on the baby too. As this may help you in future x

I’m so sorry op, thinking of you and your family.