From When Can You Hear The Baby’s Heartbeat?
A baby’s heart starts beating around the 21st day of gestation. However, parents can only hear in the sixth week of pregnancy, through ultrasound. Let’s recap everything you should know about this wonderful sound: the baby’s heartbeat.
This examination is necessarily performed after the sixth week, sometimes in the seventh or eighth week. At this stage, the baby’s heartbeat can be heard at more than 100 beats per minute.
Pregnant women often do this type of exam with a lot of emotion. Even after this exam, the bond with the baby gets closer and closer.
However, the importance of performing this exam is not just its affective impact . Magnetic resonance imaging and other current tests confirm the embryo’s health status and may result in the discovery of some complication.
According to experts, it is vitally important that pregnant women perform the Doppler exam regularly. This allows you to determine the proper functioning of the cardiovascular system during the baby’s development. It also strengthens the bond between mother and baby.
How many pulses per minute can the baby have?
It is common for mothers on the first ultrasound exam to describe the sound of their baby’s heart as a troop of horses galloping. This can make some mothers a little uneasy.
In parallel, it is also normal for the embryo’s pulsations to increase progressively until reaching 170 beats per minute in the second month, with a constant heart fluctuation until the moment of birth.
A study published in 2010 revealed that maternal exercise during the last trimester of pregnancy has an influence on the cardiocirculatory behavior of mother and baby. This causes a mechanism to protect and regulate the health of both until the moment of birth.
Many women are startled when the baby slows down, but it is common for this to happen during contractions.
Professionals explain that during a contraction the blood flow to the placenta is reduced and, as a result, the baby’s heart rate decreases. Pulses will return to their natural rhythm when the contraction ends, which can be seen using Doppler.
The use of equipment such as portable fetal doppler
A few years ago, the portable electronic doppler gained market positions for pregnant women. Among other reasons, it allows you to relive some experiences of the medical appointment at home.
Even though this type of device has not conquered the professional world, its use is increasingly frequent by future parents. It is important, however, to have adequate information.
There are different and varied positions of professionals in relation to its use and recommendation . Some of the commonly mentioned advantages are:
- It has headphone jacks.
- Devices that have a speaker allow simultaneous listening to multiple family members.
- Can be connected to smartphone. After downloading the application, you can record the baby’s heartbeat on the phone and see the sound graph on the phone screen.
- Both parents and anyone else can listen to the baby’s heartbeat as often as they like, whenever and wherever they like.
Use and maintenance of portable fetal doppler
Its use is similar to the ultrasound exam that is performed in a doctor’s appointment. In other words, it also requires the application of a gel for its correct functioning. The use of this type of product is important because otherwise it will be damaged.
One of the disadvantages that many users manifest is the difficulty of use. At the same time, they warn about possible reading errors and the consequent concern that this entails for future parents in relation to the baby’s heartbeat.
The Doppler fetal transforms sound into any inner movement detected. Therefore, the flow of our body regulation, when detected by the device, can be included in the information and lead to a false perception of the baby’s heartbeat speed.
Therefore, it is recommended to be careful with this type of product. In the case of people who are anxious or who tend to worry excessively, the ideal is to leave this type of exam in the hands of professionals and follow the consultations and exams established by the doctor.
