Does my baby have too fast heartbeat??

[aiti72]

Please help me, 33+5 today and just checked the baby's heartbeat (this damn home doppler), it has always been 130-140, now it beats up to 170!! And it was quite a while I kept listening. Does this mean the baby is in distress?

Hi aiti - I'm no expert, but had a trace yesterday and about a month ago (currently 40 wks) and baby's heartrate reached 170 when active, and no-one seemed to worry. But you could check with midwife?
HTH

Maybe the doppler is exciting it?

Definately check if you're worried but as kay says if the baby is moving, the heartbeat will go faster. When I had traces done I was told that the main sign of babies going into distress is suddenly accelerating and then deccelerating heartbeats with no obvious movements.

Oh thank you so much, ladies! I have never called my midwives so don't know how fast they'd get back to me from their pager, but the baby seems to be moving a lot so hopefully she's just being active. BeachBunni, do you know how low would the heartbeat deccelerate when in distress? I mean the heartbeat goes from 170 to 125 and back now...

125 to 170 is a good range that I wouldn't be worrying about. I can't remember the exact number and wouldn't want to say as I'm no expert but it was far lower than 125. All I know is my lo started to go into distress the day I found out there was no doppler flow and his hb was racing up, then suddenly dropping through the floor but there wasn't the movements associated with it as usual. Certainly contact your midwife if you're worried - that's what they're there for (and throw the doppler away)

Thank you a million for sharing your experience, BeachBunni.

Anything up to 190 is fine for when active I think, my LO even topped 200 once on the CTG. Perfectly fine and nothing to worry about

The 'normal' range is 110 - 160 but as has been said, it can easily get up to 200 for a short period when beby is moving fast. Earlier gestation often means slightly faster heartbeat.

I have seen babies with decelerations to below 50 with no ill effects at birth, and other babies with fairly normal traces having many of the signs of distress when born. Its really not possible for you to diagnose fetal distress with a handheld doppler without lots of training, so dont think of that, just enjoy listening to your baby