11 or 12 weeks Pregnant, couldnt heat fetal heart tones on doppler?
Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at
10:49 pm
Hey, so according to my LMP im 11 weeks today, according to my last ultrasound, im 12 weeks tomorrow… so anyway, my arnp tried to listen for a heart tone today, and she THOUGHT she heard it but she said the baby was moving and couldnt keep the doppler on it long enough… should I be worried that I havent heard it? I had a miscarriage in Oct, and the same thing happened, I couldnt hear a heartbeat and then i found out i had a missed miscarriage at 8 weeks and I was 12… so help 
Filed under: Fetal Doppler FAQs
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Heartbeats can be difficult to hear on the doppler at your stage in the pregnancy, they are much easier when you’re further along. See if they will give you an ultrasound to check the baby’s status.
Sometimes it’s just hard to hear it with certain pregnancies. You’re still in your first trimester so I wouldn’t worry too much. Maybe you can get an ultrasound done. I bet it would help if you saw the baby.
Did she order an ultrasound? Or is she going to try again in a day or two?
I wouldn’t worry too much just yet. Most (not all, but most) of the time when a patient comes to me because the doctor couldn’t hear a heartbeat, we pick it up just fine on ultrasound. It can be due to any number of reasons, baby isn’t as far along as you thought, an anterior placenta, a retroverted uterus, or mom just has some extra weight around the middle. Any of those factors can make it hard to pick up a heartbeat on doppler. So I wouldn’t worry too much yet, just make sure she follows it up somehow. Best wishes.
My doctor’s office didn’t even try to hear the heartbeat until I was 16 weeks. At my first appointment at 8 weeks they just got a medical history on me & my second appointment at 12 weeks they did a quick ultrasound in the office and they saw baby & her heartbeat & then at 16 weeks they used the doppler to listen to her heartbeat. They said before that it would have been to hard to pick up.
Nope the same happen to me. I was 14 weeks before hearing my baby heartbeat.