Whether this is your first pregnancy, your last, or somewhere in between – if you haven’t already invested in a doppler fetal heart monitor, you don’t know what you’re missing!  Gone are the “is my baby okay” worries of the first and second trimesters where you have to wait an agonizing 4 weeks between visits to hear your little one’s heart go pitter patter.  And even once you’ve experienced the “quickening” can can coach your baby to kick with a glass of orange juice, hearing the baby’s heart beat through a monitor is such a calming sound.

What is a Heart Fetal Monitor?

A heart fetal monitor, is also knows as a  fetal heart monitor, a fetal doppler heart monitor, and many other variations of the terms.  Basically the fetal heart monitor is an instrument that enables the user to hear inside the mother’s body to hear not only the baby’s heart beat, but also sounds of movements (including hiccups) of the baby as well as some of the mother’s internal sounds (heartbeat, stomach and intestinal noises, the amniotic fluid flow, etc.)  The fetal monitor or doppler fetal monitor is much more sensitive than just a regular stethoscope, which usually can’t detect the fetal heartbeat until around 16 weeks.  Many users of fetal heart monitors can detect the baby’s heart rate as early as 9 weeks.

Which Fetal Doppler Heart Monitor is Best for Me?

There are many different gadgets available for fetal heart rate monitoring.  You can even purchase the top of the line fetal doppler heart monitor that your OB likely uses.  Prices range from just around thirty dollars ($30) on up to around two thousand ($2000) dollars.

If you absoutely cannot afford anything more, then go ahead and get a $30 model, however, many reviews state that the sound can be  a little static-y and makes it hard to find the baby’s heartbeat.  The best reviews come from those in the $150 range that also include an LCD display to give you the actual heart rate of the baby, not just the sound.  There really is no need to spend more than $200 on a fetal heart monitor for you at home unless you are also a practicing mid-wife or doula, in which case it may be best to invest in the hospital grade model (around $600.)

So if you are expecting, or know someone who is – get a fetal heart monitor for home use – it’s one of the best pre-natal instruments you can have!