baby's heartrate?

[maybebaby23]

Hi ladies,

Yesterday i went in to be monitored and checked over as i thought labour was starting..so was put on the monitor for 30 mins. When the midwife came back she commented on how the baby was "going mad" because her heartrate was going up and down the whole time. She said she will keep me on it a bit longer. After another 30 mins she said the same about baby going mad. I asked if all was ok and she said yes. She said we just need to wait until it calms down so i was on for another 30 mins. It never calmed down, kept going between 125 and 175. Is this normal or what? I did ask and she just said yes but if it was normal how come i had to stay on the monitor for an hour and half?

I was in and out all the time with DD1 being monitored and they always said the trace was prefect. Im sure i remember hers going between 125 and 150..
This midwife just said it was fine and let me go home after all other checks on me were done.

I know it is probably fine otherwise they wouldn't have let me go but it is playing on my mind. What if baby is distressed? Midwife just put it down to lots of movement and said its a good sign? Baby is moving as normal.

I was having regular contractions if that makes any difference? I was wondering if that could cause her heartate to keep going up then down? I wasn't feeling the contractions, they are not strong enough to dilate my cervix..

Does anyone know anything about normal heart rates for baby? Thanks for reading!

Hi

Normal fetal HR is 110 -160bpm.

The "going mad" described by your MW is called Variability and is mostly a reassuring feature on a CTG. Fetal movements are also reassuring, and as you say the baby is moving normally I would be happy with that.

Excessive movements can sometimes be a worrying sign, so if you have that you should go back for another CTG.
On your CTG the 175bpm was a little high, but if you'd eaten recently, were nervous (your HR would have been higher), or contracting these can all affect the baby.

It would be handy to know what the baseline rate was - this is the mean HR - do you have the CTG printout in your notes? If the baseline is within normal limits then the rises to 175 are just accelerations, which are fine!

Hope that helps?

A x

I was sent in to be monitored 2 weeks ago because my baby was 'going mad' at the midwifes. The heart beat was going 180 - 200 for 10 mins so she sent me in.

As soon as I got there the baby settled down and was between 130 and 160. I asked what was normal and she said anything between 120 and 180.

I think midwives tend to panic a bit sometimes and get us monitored to be on the safe side. Sounds like your baby was ok.

BTW I was 34 weeks when I was monitored.

Thanks for replying ladies! Very helpful.

Amylouise, my pulse was a bit fast and bp was raised as i suffer with anxiety so just being in the hospital raised my BP! so what you said makes sense, it was probably because my pulse was faster..i don't know the baseline as they didn't put a print out in my notes.

Thanks for sharing mama2moo, im glad to hear your baby settled down when you got there! Typical though

Thanks again for your helpful replies

Same here, went for routine MW appt and she spent ages on heart rate then said 'I don't to worry you BUT I do want you to go to hospital right now'. I was there for 4 hours before it settled down after 'if it doesn't settle down you'll have this baby today' pretty much 'bye then, it's ok now'.

It did scare the wotnots out of me, that was almost 2 weeks ago and due to christmas and new year no free appt until next week (my due date) with me not having a clue how it is now!!

It is typical that they behave as soon as you get to the hospital!

I think my babies was racing because I was rushing round like mad just before my appointment and getting stressed because the mw was half an hour behind! From now on I will relax

omg carrielou how scary. I know, it seems that they just let you go home after all that and no-one says anything more about it! Im back in tomorrow for my pre-op and will ask about it, maybe they will have a listen again for me.