Dopplers?

[Echomama]

Anybody had any experience with them?
How early do they actually work?
I'm in a country where they don't really have an epu nor many options for a private scan unless i want to travel to the capital 5 hours away.
my first scan isn't until I'm almost 12 weeks.
Thinking of getting a doppler to ease my mind after yet more bleeding (which i think is just normal for my body in pregnancy now)? Experiences with them much welcome!

In the UK they aren’t recommended for home use as they can pick up on either the placental pulse or maternal pulse and provide false security.
Also baby is so small at this point it would be really tricky to find a heartbeat which could increase anxiety. Midwives can find the heartbeat with a Doppler from around 16 weeks here and not all trusts will have that as standard as they can still be tricky to find at this point!
Early pregnancy is a really anxiety provoking time, I found it challenging each time! What helped me (and may not be helpful for you so I apologise if it isn’t!) was reminding myself that “for today I am pregnant, until I know or am told otherwise, I am pregnant and all is well”.
best of luck with your pregnancy!

Not it be used as a medical device by the medically untrained.....

Nope. The guidance has changed and even midwives aren’t supposed to listen at 16 weeks here, it’s supposed to wait until 24 weeks, but some still will. They won’t refer you for a scan if they can’t find the heartbeat though, because it’s usually just user error, the baby is tiny.

It’ll either give you false reassurance or unnecessary worry, or a lovely combination of both.

It's really not recommended to use a doppler as previous poster has said. Also, at my last midwife appointment, 28 weeks, the trained midwife had issues with two dopplers, neither of them picking up my baby's heartbeat. Fortunately she had a third one to try.
I'll never do one by myself, if that had happened at home I would have thought I'd lost my baby.

Won’t pick it up that early.
do you think you could differentiate between placenta and heartbeat?
for generally having a listen - fine, for actually working out if something is wrong - absolutely not!

Hi @Echomama i totally get your anxiety in early pregnancy. How many weeks are you?

I am very lucky to have the medical grade FD1 that midwives use, but would never use it to make sure everything is ok. It is more for my DH and me just to listen to bond. If I thought anything was wrong, I’d get checked. I also didn’t start using it until way past 12 weeks.

as a PP has said, it can often pick up a sound that resembles a heartbeat but it’s the placenta, it’s almost like a whoosh sound. But I have learnt how to tell the difference. I wouldn’t that early on.

good luck x

Totally know they pick up on placenta and most of the time mums own beat but these pregnancies hormones have my mind spinning haha,
I'm currently coming up to 8 weeks, but I've had multiple mcs around this time. Plus bled with both children I've birthed at this sort of time so I know it's 50/50 at this point.
Also apparently I have fibroids which is causing a lot more discomfort and cramps than I remember with my previous pregnancies.
I'm trying to take it one day at a time but it feels like the days drag while going so fast haha
Probably won't get a doppler, (thanks for saving me some pennies!)
Hopefully if I can hold out and not bleed much more I can get a private scan when I drive over to the uk next week!

I used one against the advice, as it was an ivf pregnancy and I had an active job and kept worrying about the little guy. I always found his heart beat and knew the difference between that and the placenta because my midwife trained a trainee in front of me to do it 😅 however with the benefit of hindsight I wouldn't recommend, it gives some reassurance for a short while but the worry comes back, and you may also end up stressing about heart rates versus gestational age etc and its not worth it. Also won't pick up a reliable heartbeat til much later in gestation.