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Your care giver will listen
to the baby's heart beat every time you go into the office for a visit
after you are at  least
11 - 12 weeks pregnant and record it in your pre-natal record. The
first time a heart beat can be seen is at 5 - 6 weeks of pregnancy on a
sonogram. Using a simple device called a doppler, your care giver
can hear the baby's heart beat at 12 - 13 weeks of pregnancy. A doppler
is a machine that can hear the baby's heart beat at a very early fetal
age by magnifying the baby's heart beat. The doppler is placed on
your uterus and the angle of it is changed until the heart beat is found.
If your care giver has a doppler with a microphone built into it, you will
also be able to hear your baby's heart beat at every visit.
The usual heart rate at 12 - 13 weeks is about 160 beats per minute.
As the baby gets older, the heart rate slows to 120 -140 beats per minute. |
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Before the use of the doppler,
another method was used. This was a fetoscope, a special type of
stethoscope,  with
a bell shaped head and a curved end in which the doctor would rest her
head. The care giver would change the angle of the fetoscope until
the heart beat was found. A fetoscope was used from 18 - 20
weeks of pregnancy. The baby's heart beat can only be heard by your
care giver if a fetoscope is used. Some doctors still use a fetoscope
to listen at 18 - 20 weeks of pregnancy since this is considered a milestone
in a pregnancy for dating the age of the baby. |
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© 1996-99: MJ
Bovo. All rights reserved under US Copyright Law.
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| Excerpts from:
The Family
Pregnancy © 1995: MJ Bovo, The Family Pregnancy, Second Edition,
currently
in production, and Do You Have Any Questions? © 1995:
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