No heartbeat on doppler found on ultrasound

[Sara1988]

Had my 28 week midwife appointment today and midwife couldn't find heartbeat with doppler. Got rushed into MAU and given a scan within about 20 mins. Heartbeat find, umbilical chord fine, everything good.

I was so shaken by the whole thing I barely asked any questions. Has anyone else had this? Not really clear on why or how it could have happened.

This happens, sometimes baby isn’t sitting in the position that the midwife predicted, so for example from the outside they feel a what they think is a bum and assume where the heart should be based on that but in fact it was a head they were feeling. Or baby is tucked away in an awkward spot.

its scary and I understand why you were shaken though. Glad you got the reassurance you needed with a scan.

I'm so glad all is well.

It does happen. This is why they advise not to get a doppler for home use - you can't always find the heartbeat with one and it can be the absolute opposite of reassuring, as you've found out. As PP says, it's likely to be to do with the position of the baby and no reflection on the midwife or on the baby's health.

It’s not uncommon. I had DD eleven days ago and whilst in labour they could not find her heartbeat anywhere, despite us being able to see her trying to ninja kick her way out of my belly. They had three doctors checking.

Yes, agree, it’s not that uncommon. I had similar and the relief when they found it on ultrasound! Mine was a placenta at the front.

Apparently this is the reason why Doppler inspections are no longer part of the official midwife curriculum.
Remember-midwives are not doctors so cannot expect equal level of expertise from them. They are technically just nurses that operate in a specific field.

It does happen, I know someone it happened to at nearly full term and the baby was fine. Part of the reason people should never use Dopplers at home.

That's a bit harsh on midwives - if the baby is in a position whereby a Doppler can't pick up their heartbeat then it won't be found whether it's a doctor or a nurse trying to find it.

Any midwife will be massively more experienced in finding the heartbeat than a doctor. If you need assistance with this the doctor scans, they'd never take over trying with the dappled!

At 28 weeks you usually feel kicking, had that stopped too OP?

Thanks everybody for your responses. Was such a scary moment but this has helped me 🥰

@RedHelenB I could feel the baby and even hear its movements on the doppler but no heartbeat and the midwife was trying to so long!

Seems like it was at a routine appointment. Maybe baby wasn't kicking/moving during the examination. ETA: Good to know OP. Glad that was the case.

And yes OP. While I was an inpatient at 36-37 weeks. Multiple times. My second was (still is) a bit of a monkey, and loved to hide behind his placenta (anterior) and his cord. He was also back to back and frank breech (for the best part of the first week in hospital) to boot. I'm obese as well which definitely didn't help matters. I had senior midwives with years of experience struggle to find his heartbeat. They'd find either my heartbeat, the placenta or cord sounds, and feel him wriggling away (no doubt with glee at having thwarted us all yet again) but not his elusive little heart.

Usually persistence would eventually win. But a couple times the towel was thrown in and they would try again later. Never needed a CTG or scan, as we were happy he was moving normally.

Sorry this happened op, it must've been very scary and worrying. Hopefully it won't happen again.

@Dyra thank you- baby is head down and have posterior plaenta but I do carry extra weight around belly so maybe that didn't help? Baby has been awkward at every scan too! Hiding from sonographer! Sorry you had to go through all that stress as well.

Glad all ok, I've heard it's quite common they can't find the heartbeat but all fine. That's why they advise not to use Doppler machines at home

Dopplers arent that reliable they can pick up your heartbeat or the placenta I never felt totally at ease when my Gp used it at my check ups always had a huge sense of relief after a quick scan at the hospital appointments. Glad everything is ok x

LOL both mine hated scans too. My second especially.

My third baby was a nightmare for not hearing a heartbeat and going still. Many many extra appointment til we found her again each time.
She is now a clever, funny, bright 5 year old.
It was at the time extremely stressful and I worried so much.

Sorry to add but I’m a midwife and can tell you I’m trained in using a Doppler but drs are not. They have lots of wonderful skills but using a Doppler is not one of them. Or a CTG machine which continuously monitors the fetal heart, I’ve had consultants ask me to work it for them.

Yes, exactly what I was thinking! Midwives do Dopplers every day, apart from anything else saying that they are ‘technically just nurses’ is incredibly rude and dismissive of the previous poster. There’s nothing ‘just’ about it.

Ah similar happened to me at a 25week apt with my second. The heartbeat had previously been found really quickly a few weeks before so they let a student midwife try first. She had no luck and started to look quite panicked/flustered so the other midwife had a go and couldn't find it either. We could see and feel him moving around so thankfully we knew all was ok but it still made me feel panicky for a while. The midwife felt around for ages to try and see what position he was in but he kept moving which made it harder. After what felt like a lifetime (probably about 10/15mins) she did find it. I then had similar again just before my due date and my midwife couldn't find the heartbeat for about 5minutes which even she was quite baffled by because he definitely wasn't tucked away hiding in a funny position at that point. But again thankfully he was moving so we knew all was ok and she did find it in the end it just took a while.

This is exactly why home dopplers are not ideal and why many trusts say for midwives to not try and find the heart beat before 25 weeks. Sorry you had this experience op you must have been so anxious.

I definitely don't blame the midwife and actually feel a lot safer in midwife led care!

Have you come across this happening before in your experience?

Hi, yes it can happen and doesn’t indicate any problem with the baby if the heartbeat has since been picked up in hospital. best of luck!

So glad things are ok

I found with my twins my midwife was impossible at finding heartbeats - in the end I would find them for her! This was the same on the DawesRedman machines in the hospital too