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Medical Video: 9 WEEKS PREGNANT | Hearing the baby's heart beat!
In early pregnancy, the curiosity to find out when you can hear a baby's heartbeat may dominate all the worries you have right now. In previous decades, medical devices similar to stethoscopes were the only tools available, and only your doctor could hear the heartbeat of your baby.
Today, modern technology allows doctors to detect a baby's heartbeat early, and the mother can also hear her first heart beat.
When does the baby's heart begin to develop in the womb?
Fetal development usually follows a predictable pathway. Fertilization usually occurs about two weeks after your last menstruation begins. To calculate the birth date of the baby's birth, the doctor will calculate the next 40 weeks starting from the first day of your last menstruation. That is, your last menstrual period is counted as part of the pregnancy process - even though you have not been positively pregnant at that time.
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At the beginning of the fifth week of pregnancy, or the third week after conception, the baby's heart begins to form along with the brain, spinal cord, and other organs. The first baby's heartbeat will appear 22-23 days after conception, which is in the middle of the fifth week. At this time, the baby's heart is still too small to produce enough sound waves so that the sound is clear, even when strengthened by the use of medical equipment by a doctor.
So, when can I hear my baby's heartbeat?
Your baby's heartbeat will start to beat around the sixth week of pregnancy, which is six weeks from the first day of your last menstrual cycle. At this time, blood will flow into the embryo and there will be an increase in the baby's heart rate up to 100-160 per minute.
You will probably be able to hear your baby's first pounding at around 6.5-8 weeks of gestation if you have an early ultrasound. Don't be afraid if the heart beat is not heard in these times, because the process can take 12 weeks for you to hear all kinds of sounds in your uterus clearly.
An obstetric ultrasound, or sonogram, is the most accurate and often used by your doctor / midwife to check your baby's heartbeat. In addition to checking heart rate, obstetricians can also use ultrasound to ensure pregnancy at six weeks; determine the age and size of the fetus; rule out problems with your pregnancy; or check the possibility of multiple pregnancies.
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If you have not / have not undergone ultrasound at this time, then you may be able to hear the baby's first heartbeat through Fetal Doppler at your regular prenatal visit. Your doctor or midwife may be able to detect a baby's heartbeat using Doppler as early as 10 weeks of gestation, but is more often heard at week 12.
Fetal Doppler is a mini version of an ultrasound that can be held to find your baby's heartbeat. Your doctor or midwife will coat your stomach with an ultrasound gel and move the Doppler stick around the surface of your stomach until it finds a place where the heartbeat can be detected. Doppler sends and receives sound waves that bounce off your baby's heart.
In this way, fetal doppler makes your baby's heartbeat "echo" loud enough for you to be able to hear it. When exactly you can hear your baby's first heartbeat will depend greatly on your pregnant body size, the position of the uterus, the location of the baby, and the accuracy of your gestational age.
Many women say that their baby's heartbeat first sounds like a hubbub of horses galloping fast. Baby's heart rate ranges from 120 to 160 beats per minute - if your baby's actual heart rate is outside that range, your baby may have a heart problem.
The baby's heartbeat is not heard, a sign of what?
At around 12 weeks of pregnancy, you will usually have a prenatal appointment so the doctor or midwife can try to detect the baby's heartbeat. However, sometimes during this examination you cannot hear your baby's heartbeat in the womb. There are many reasons why you can't hear your baby right now, including:
1. Your birth date is missed
If you are unsure when your last menstrual period or if your due date is calculated using a method other than USG, your baby's birth date may miss the mark than you thought. That is, you are not really 12 weeks pregnant. This makes your baby's heartbeat difficult to hear. Missing the date due date is one of the most common reasons, especially if this is your first prenatal visit.
2. Position of the uterus
If you have an oblique uterus, you may have a little trouble hearing your baby's heartbeat at first. This is because Doppler moves according to direction, so when the doctor or midwife moves the tool around the position of the uterus in general, your uterus has a slightly different position. This is not a problem, just a difference.
3. Position of the baby
At this stage of pregnancy, your baby is very small. Doppler needs to find the location of the baby in the right way to capture the heartbeat. Sometimes it only takes a little more patience and luck to find a baby and "get caught" by Doppler.
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4. Body size of pregnant women
If you are overweight, for example, sometimes the separation layer between the baby and the Doppler is thick enough so that it will be a little difficult to hear the heart beat clearly. Usually this can be overcome by using a transvaginal ultrasound if you or your doctor is worried about your baby.
5. Miscarriage
Sometimes, the reason you can't hear your heartbeat is because you are in the process of miscarriage, even if you don't have signs of miscarriage. This may be a hidden miscarriage, where you don't have signs of miscarriage, or even an empty pregnancy, where the baby never really starts to form, even if you experience symptoms of pregnancy.
If you have a prenatal appointment and cannot hear the baby's heartbeat, you may be told to come in one or two weeks afterwards to try again or even wait until the next appointment, depending on how far your pregnancy is. You might also be scheduled for an ultrasound to check the baby next week, depending on the reason the doctor or midwife can't hear your baby.
If this happens, try not to panic. This is a fairly frequent occurrence and has some very reasonable explanations. Stress about not being able to hear your baby's heart beat will only make you feel bad and will not change results. Convey all your concerns to your doctor / midwife to get their guidance for quick decisions.
