Worried about hearing baby's heartrate drop on doppler at 17 weeks.?
For the record, I am an antepartum nurse who is trained to use a doppler and distiguish between fetal heart tones vs. maternal pulse. I was listening to my baby the other night (like I do every night before bed) and I heard the baby’s heartrate drop very low for a couple of seconds. I would estimate the rate was in the 60’s-70’s. I am positive it was not my pulse. It rebounded very quickly back to baseline (140-ish) but dropped several more times over the next half hour or so. Each time it would rebound within 2-4 seconds, but would then be very irregular. This happened one week ago and I had just seen a high risk Ob and she said everything looked good. Still, it was scary. Since then the heartrate has sounded fine, with a couple of minor drops or skipped beats, but nothing compared to what it was that night. Anyone have any knowledge or experience with this? Thanks…
Filed under: Fetal Doppler FAQs
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were you laying on your back? if so that could just be the problem:) when you lay on your back you decrese blood flow to the placenta by laying on a vein it is possible for a babys heartrate to drop dramaticly in just a few seconds (especially the farther along you are) that is why the doctors dont advise pregnant women to lie on their backs! im sure your baby is just fine and dandy! congrats on the little one!
My mother is an Obstetrics Nurse Clinical 3 and I know that she has talked to various women about this problem before. My honest advice is that you call up your pediatrician or schedule another appointment and tell her about your concerns. Tell her your observations and what you think is happening and make sure you let her know that you are ill at ease from thinking all this. She needs to know that you are worried and need to be reassured. If you don’t get it checked out, something could happen to the baby before it is born and the heart beat could be a sign of premature heart problems. Check with your doctor and let her be the one to tell you whats going on.
Have you had an ultrasound yet? I was 14 weeks when I had an ultrasound at a specialists office to rule out heart defects. It was actually pretty interesting. They dissected his heart on the monitor. All the chambers, valves, etc. I recommend it. The heart rate shouldn’t have dropped that low. maybe 120’s…not 60’s. best of luck