Home doopler

[TTCJourney321]

Hi there
I used a home doopler yesterday for the first time (12+3) and finding the little heart beat was incredible. However since then I have had a dull ache where I found the heart beat, is there any way I could of caused any damage, everything I read says its unlikely but can’t work out why I would have this achey feeling on the right side of my uterus?
I have had a couple of losses before this so I am anxious about every little thing.

my advice? get rid of the doppler

You won't have done any damage

But you should ditch the Doppler. It's easy to misunderstand what you're hearing - even for trained midwives! - and they can cause both false reassurance and false alarms.

Very unlikely to have caused any harm.
Please be very wary about using the Doppler. You are not medically trained (I presume) and they are very unreliable. You may give yourself more stress an less reassurance than you might think.

Best thing I ever did for my anxiety was tell the midwife about it. I got support straight away for the whole pregnancy. I was still a wreck, but so much better than I would have been. Please ask for help.

OP. I am a midwife. Please bin the Doppler. It is very unlikely you heard a heart beat at 12 weeks as the fetus is still inside the pelvis. They are so unsafe for the fact they give false reassurance.

I had a woman come to me who had sadly lost her baby. She hasn’t come in when the movements stopped as she was still hearing the heartbeat. She wasn’t and her baby had died.

Please bin it right now.

It won’t have caused any harm though.

Definitely ditch it

I echo the above, dopplers when you're untrained are so dangerous, you may pick up the noise of the placenta for example, or your own heartbeat. There's a reason even trained midwives don't offer to do the doppler until much later in pregnancy, due to the worry that they won't pick the heartbeat up. At 12 weeks, it's more likely you heard the placenta or another noise that is not the heartbeat, so please if you're worried about anything at all, don't rely on the doppler.

Thanks everyone! With how much anxiety I have I got it as I thought it would be a nice bit of reassurance. Now I am worried I didn’t hear the heartbeat at all and maybe there is something wrong! 😭

you’re not going to bin it OP are you?

@DearGoldFish I do think I will get rid of it yeah, I am having more anxiety from reading all these so probably the best thing to do!

do it
now
and then post a pic of it smashed and in the bin

seriously op… nothing will help your anxiety more

Please bin it. There was a study done in Australia recently that showed they increase stillborn risk (as people get false reassurance). The Aus national health board has done a nationwide ban.

I agree with others, even my midwife checked my heart beat at the same time as listening to baby's to make sure she wasn't picking mine up by mistake. It's too easy to get it wrong at home and cause false reassurance or unnecessary panic

I am going to get rid of it! I did watch lots of youtube videos to try and work out the difference between the sound of my heartbeat, the placenta and babys. But I guess I am just going to have to fork out on tons of private scans to keep the anxiety at bay 🤣

photographic evidence please!! 😆

please do seek help from your midwife for prenatal anxiety, it will make the pregnancy more relaxed and enjoyable for you, it sounds like you are struggling and please don't ignore it because there will be new and different things you will fixate on all the time if you don't get to the root of it 💞

@DearGoldFish haha I will as soon as I am home

@Becsahm Yes I think I need to do something, I know stress isn’t good for me or the baby but pregnancy loss really does suck all the joy out of it entirely!

The worst thing you can do for anxiety is pander to it; you won't make yourself feel better.

have you smashed it and binned it yet op?

Scans didn’t help my anxiety. They only show everything is ok in those few minutes. Honestly the best thing you can do is speak to your midwife about improving your anxiety. I’ve had private counselling and it’s helped so much. My thought is that having a baby will also cause anxiety so it’s best to deal with it now,

This x100, just gives your brain validation that being in a heightened anxious state is ok. Please bin the doppler and speak to your midwife

Doopler is gone 🤗
I will speak to my midwife tomorrow however I am not sure if there is much they can do. I am
already going through talking therapy which I was signed onto from a previous loss - which I personally don’t really think makes any difference - just reminds me of the awful thing which happened. I wouldn’t take tablets because Its only during pregnancy, I don’t suffer with anxiety normally. Its all down to the trauma from my previous miscarriages.

Any recommendations of coping mechanisms which isn’t therapy or medication would be great to hear.