As you can imagine, not finding a heartbeat or misinterpreting a signal may generate anxiety and panic.” Also, because there is no quality control with many of these commercial products, it might take longer to find a heartbeat, which can lead to excessive ultrasound exposure for your baby. “The beam must be aligned with the heart,” says Lim. Not finding a heartbeatĭo high-tech baby monitors cause more harm than good? One of the main issues with using an at-home fetal Doppler is that you might not be able to find the baby’s heart rate easily. Many people feel it’s not worth the risk if it’s not medically required. Keep in mind that there are theoretical risks for any kind of ultrasound, including a home fetal Doppler, says Lim, because it transmits energy to the fetus, which has “the theoretical potential to cause harm if excessive energy is transmitted.” While there’s no definitive evidence that ultrasound can cause harm, some studies show that it could have effects on brain development, so it should be used sparingly. While ultrasound is considered to be quite safe in the hands of a technician, if a person doesn’t know what they are doing (such as listening to the heartbeat excessively by keeping the transducer in one spot), it has the theoretical potential to affect the fetus. “If you hold it in one place for a very long time, it can heat the tissue at some point,” explains Nevo. Lim and Nevo agree that there are thermal risks, as well as the potential to aggravate fetal tissue. Ultrasound can heat tissues slightly and, in some cases, produce very small bubbles in tissue, according to experts at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There are a few reasons why you should proceed with caution with these handheld devices. What are the risks of using an at-home fetal Doppler? If the device detects a beating heart, it converts it to an auditory signal. How does a fetal Doppler work?Ī fetal Doppler sends out a beam of high-frequency sound waves that reflect off various tissues, explains Kenneth Lim, division head of maternal fetal medicine at BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre. These types of heartbeat ultrasounds also don’t produce images instead, they pick up the sound of your baby’s heartbeat. What exactly is a fetal Doppler?įetal Doppler heartbeat monitors work just like the ultrasound technology used in your doctor’s office, but they have a lower intensity, explains Ori Nevo, an obstetrician who specializes in high-risk pregnancy care and co-director of the Toronto Centre for Early Fetal Ultrasound at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. But are these machines safe and reliable? We asked the medical experts to tell us the benefits and risks of using an at-home fetal Doppler. With the advent of many new pregnancy monitoring devices, it’s easier (and more tempting) than ever to check in on your baby’s health at home. But the bottom line is that any type of fetal Doppler monitor is meant to be used only by trained professionals.When you’re pregnant, it’s natural to want to know what’s happening inside your growing belly. The version used by doctors also provides imaging, whereas the handheld devices offer only sound. The main difference between the two? The Doppler ultrasound used in the doctor’s office tends to use higher-frequency sound waves, making it more accurate and reliable. The latter is used by a trained professional at your doctor’s office starting around eight weeks into your pregnancy to confirm your due date and check baby’s heartbeat (which begins to beat around the end of week 6!). “The claims are very enticing to pregnant women because you want to do everything you can to bond with your baby.”It’s easy to confuse a home fetal Doppler monitor with a Doppler ultrasound machine. “They’re marketed as a way to listen to baby’s heartbeat from a really early stage, in order to reassure moms,” says Elizabeth Hutton, CEO of Kicks Count, a U.K.-based nonprofit that aims to educate parents-to-be about tracking baby’s movement.
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