Baby Heartbeat Monitor | Baby Heartbeat Monitor Guide

In a word, no. Some still to this day believe otherwise but most would categorize anything to do with this method simply as an “Old Wives Tale”.

The basic principle behind this theory is that you can decide what gender of a baby you are going to have on the speed of the babys heart beat in the womb.

There are varying reports on what will show which gender is which but for the most part people believe that a slow heart beat will indiciate a boy, slow being under 140-150 on average, and that the faster heart beats over 150 or around that, to be evidence that you will be having a girl.

One reason this might have started as a believable method to many is that women’s heartbeats are usually higher then mens’ so it stands to reason that when you are trying to determine the sex of your baby with a baby heart beat monitor that if the baby’s heart matches the same method, then it might as well be true for them to. This simply isn’t true.

There have been no proven reports on this being true, but you will still hear this as being a way to tell, especially from people, specifically mothers who did this test and it ended up being accurate.

If anyone says this is a proven fact, they might just be biased in the fact that it worked for them and you can’t argue with that, but it’s usually good for a guess but should never be considered fact.

First off, if you have purchase a baby heart beat monitor you should look for the instructions included in them. If you purchased one without instructions, possibly a used baby heart beat monitor, then you should be able to find specific instructions from the manufacturers website.

Here is a brief basic list of things you will need to know in order to use them, but since each heart monitor is different, this list should not be considered to be scientific or exact.

1. The first thing you will need to do is provide access to the skin of the pregnant mothers belly. You should not try to monitor the babys heart beat through any type of cloth no matter how thin it is.

In order to get the best results you will need to apply the gel that either came with the baby heart beat monitor or that you purchased seperately. Depending on the the type of heart monitor you got, some will come with a specific type they recommened you use with their product or they might just suggest you order some as well.

2. You should apply a fairly small amount to begin with, around the belly button. You can usually get away with applying about a tea spoon of the ultrasound gel but you can always add more. It’s easier to add more then it is too add too much and risk not being able to hear or making a huge mess.

Make sure the baby heart beat monitor is on, then take the end of it and apply the probe to the area that you placed the ultrasound gel.

3. If you do not hear the babys heart beat immediately, then simply move it slowly around the area until you pick up a sound. If that doesn’t give you results, your options would be to make sure the volume is on and up enough to hear. Possibly apply some more ultrasound gel.

If you still don’t hear anything the baby may not be positioned correctly to hear the heartbeat so you might need to try again later.

One indicitator of where the baby is located is that if you feel the baby kicking the from of the pregnant stomache, the body may be on the other side and it might not be the best time to listen. It still might be possibly but the best thing to do is keep trying.

It should not be forced, and you should not try to get the baby to move by moving around to much because this might cause discomfort for the baby. Let it come natural and you should be able to hear your baby’s heart beat soon enough.

Hearing your baby’s heartbeat for the first time can be an amazing experience. In the past you would need to travel to your doctor’s office in order for this to happen. Now we have monitors that you can use in the privacy of your own home to complete that same magical and wonderful experience.

Some of the benefits of buying or renting a baby heartbeat monitor are:

- Being able to hear the baby’s heartbeat anytime you wish, and in the privacy and safety of your own home. Depending on how pregnant you are, sometimes even travelling to the doctor’s office can be a trying experience. Anything you can do during your later stages of your pregnancy to increase your comfortableness and lower stress levels is a good thing!

- Many people have reported that by hearing the baby’s heartbeat it was what let them truly understand they were pregnant, or for the father since they aren’t experiencing the same things as the mother-to-be, by hearing the heartbeat of their unborn child it can really make it “real” to them, more than anything else during the pregnancy.

- Many expectant mothers worry about everything that happens when they are pregnant. By hearing the baby’s heartbeat it can give them piece of mind in knowing that their baby’s heart is healthy and there baby is still safe.

- Sharing the baby’s heartbeat with your friend and family can be a very rewarding and fun experience.

- Saving the baby’s heartbeat recording is a perfect way to save those treasured moments of your pregnancy. Save the sounds to a CD or on your computer and have them forever.

The first thing to remember is not to panic. If you’ve ever been to a Doctor’s office to hear your baby’s heart beat from a sonogram you might have experienced them not being able to find the baby’s heart beat at first either.

The fact is that your baby can be in numerous amounts of positions, some being much easier and some being much more difficult to hear the baby’s heartbeat.

If the baby is turned around then the heart is simply further away from the outer belly and it might just be too faint at this point in the pregnancy to hear it.

As the baby grows, the heart will get bigger and the heartbeats will be easier to hear. After you baby is around 14 weeks you should definitely be able to find the heartbeat. So if you are not up to this point yet, you might simply have to wait.

If it’s at 14 weeks or longer and you have tried hearing the heartbeat with a functioning baby heartbeat monitor and still can’t, you should consult your doctor to make sure everything is okay.

Sometimes not hearing the baby’s heartbeat can because you are not used to using the baby heartbeat monitor yet and still need to learn exactly how it works.

Some heartbeat monitors for your baby are going to be more complicated or if you are use to one kind, you might need to spend some time practicing with the new baby heartbeat monitor or even read the manual.

Again, if you do feel that something might be wrong, you should consult your doctor. Every pregnancy is different and if at anytime you feel like something might not be right, you should seek professional guidance.

To put it in simple terms, yes, baby heartbeat monitors are absolutely safe.

Baby Heartbeat Monitors are regulated by the FDA and there have never been any harmful reports on the baby after using one.

The Mayo Clinic states that there are no records that in the last 30 years there has ever been a negative effect on an unborn child from using a baby heartbeat monitor.

There has been a lot of research done on the noise and the heat which is produced by the heartbeat monitors and there has never been an indication of any sort that it will affect your child.

The FDA has approved that baby heartbeat monitors be used in home, in private use and there are no limits or controlled circumstances that must be used.

You also do not need to get any sort of certificate or license in order to use a baby heartbeat monitor.

As with anything in life, you might want to prevent overusing them just to avoid any side effects for the expectant mother because the baby heartbeat monitor, and the gel, if overused or used constantly might irritate the exposed areas.

Around week five of your pregnancy the baby’s heart beat, if healthy will start increasing speed at about 3.3 beats for each day for the entire next month. It should start out at about the same rate as the expectant mother but slowly increase before falling back down to normal range again.

The beginning heart beat for the baby will usually be around 80-90 beats per minute but can slightly vary depending on other circumstances.

So if the baby’s heart beat starts out at Week 5 at 85, for this example, by the end of of the month, which would be Week 8, it will have increased 3.3 beats for each day.

So in this example 85 would end up at 175 or so. After this last week, this is when it will start to decrease before it usually plateaus around 120-150 beats per minute around Week 12.

If you don’t understand the way your baby’s heart beat will change during this time it might alarm you, but by understand the baby heart beat monitor and all the guidelines it will actually help you feel more at ease through your pregnancy.

What you don’t want to do is get a baby heartbeat monitor and check your baby’s heartbeat every day, or every hour and stress over each minor change. This can drive those around you and your doctor crazy.

This isn’t to say if you feel something might be wrong not to do anything about it, just understand that your baby’s heart beat will not measure exactly to any chart, but should fall in these ranges most of the time.

You should as always, consult your doctor if you have any concerns or confusion about your baby or pregnancy.

A baby heart monitor is a small compact, and usually hand-held ultrasound device that is used specifically to detect and display either through audio or video means, the heart beat of an unborn child.

It uses a scientific effect called Doppler in order to achieve these results. Most of them will produce the sounds from the baby’s heartbeat in an audio form, some in a display to show the pattern and rhythm of the heartbeat, and some will show both.

One major advantage on using a doppler fetal monitor over a regular stehtoscope is that you have more control over the audio output so that not only can the person who is performing the monitoring listen, but it can be heard by anyone else in the room, or even in some cases saved so you can listen to it over and over, or archive it for memory or medical purposes.

They were first created in the 1950’s but over time and have gotten more reliable and accurate, and here recently within the last decade they have become inexpensive enough for people to purchase them for home use.

You can get same results and information from the Doctor’s office but to avoid the charges often associated with those visits many people prefer to purchase their own to save money in the long run.

If you have your baby heartbeat monitor already, you might want to take it with you to your next prenatal exam and ask your doctor or nurse to assist you in using it. They might be able to show you quicker than a guide or tutorial and you can usually go home after the exam and find the heartbeat in the same place it was at the doctors. It’s a quick way to learn how to use it by simply having a professional show you and guide you through it.

Sometimes a full bladder will increase the likelihood of you being able to hear your baby’s heartbeat. The reason is that when your bladder is full, the baby will be closer to the outside of your belly and this causes the heartbeat to be louder.

Make sure there is a proper amount of lotion or gel on the area you are trying to listen to the heartbeat at. If you don’t have the proper amount of lotion there might be air bubbles between your skin and the probe which will make it more difficult to hear the heartbeat. The gel is a very important part of using your baby heartbeat monitor so you definitely need to make sure there is an ample amount of it used.

When you first start trying to locate the heartbeat of your baby with the monitor you should start in a central location everytime, and then slowly around the belly until you hear it. Moving it slowly prevents outside noises and will help you avoid missing the heartbeat. It helps to have a specific pattern you follow that way you can cover the most area in the shortest amount of time, and if you don’t hear it, simply start from the beginning location and repeat until you hear it.

Make sure that if your baby heartbeat monitor is battery powered that the batteries are fully charged. If they aren’t, the baby heartbeat monitor will either not work, or even worse, it might barely work but if you don’t realize that you might think there is a problem with the baby instead since it might not pick up any sounds or that might be too faint.