Hearing a baby’s heartbeat for the first time is an exhilarating experience for expecting parents. A fetal heartbeat can be detected by a vaginal ultrasound for the first time at 5 1/2 to 6 weeks of gestation. At this time, you’ll also have the first visible indication of a developing embryo.
At 6 1/2 to 7 weeks after gestation, you can measure your baby’s heartbeat more accurately. Hence, your doctor may advise your first abdominal or vaginal ultrasound at that time. Most women first hear their baby’s heartbeat during a routine checkup that uses the fetal doppler. But new ultrasound machines are now capable of detecting the fetal the heartbeat even before a doppler does.
What to Anticipate at Your First Ultrasound
Hearing a baby’s heartbeat for the first time is an exciting milestone for new parents-to-be. But some medical practices don’t schedule the first ultrasound until between 11 and 14 weeks.
However, your doctor could advise getting this scan as soon as six weeks after the following:
- Have a medical history
- Had a miscarriage
- Had problems maintaining pregnancies in the past
The doctor or ultrasound technician will look for the following during your initial ultrasound appointment:
- Check for ectopic or non-viable pregnancies and confirm the pregnancy’s viability.
- Check the baby’s heartbeat
- In order to determine the gestational age, they measure the distance between the baby’s crown and its rump.
- Analyze a pregnancy that is abnormal
Your baby’s heartbeat should be between 90 and 110 beats per minute (bpm) at six to seven weeks, and between 140 and 170 bpm by the ninth week.
Since it’s too early in the pregnancy, it’s conceivable that you won’t be able to hear a baby’s heartbeat during your first ultrasound. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that something is wrong. Your physician could suggest scheduling a subsequent ultrasound for one to two weeks from now.
Additional causes for not hearing the heartbeat include:
- A tilted uterus
- Having a big belly
- Varying position of the baby: A fetus situated in any of the following ways:
- Left occiput anterior: The head is down, the fetus is facing the pregnant person’s back, and they are in the left side of the womb.
- Right occiput anterior: The position is the same as that above, but the fetus is in the right side of the womb.
Your doctor will evaluate your fetal measurements if no heartbeat is found. If no heartbeat is found in an embryo with a crown-rump length more than 5 millimeters, your doctor may be concerned.
According to a 1999 longitudinal study of 325 British women with a history of miscarriage, there is a 78% probability that the pregnancy will continue if a heartbeat is found at 6 weeks, a 98% chance at 8 weeks, and a 99.4% chance at 10 weeks. If there is no gestational sac after week 6, your doctor will be concerned as well. Your doctor may ask for a blood test to confirm the pregnancy or ask you to return a few days later for another
Baby’s Heartbeat Throughout Pregnancy
The average fetal heart rate is between 110 and 160 bpm, but it can vary by 5 to 25 bpm. The fetal heart rate may change as your baby responds to conditions in your uterus.
Throughout pregnancy, your baby’s heart will continue to develop. Fetal heart rate starts at between 90 and 110 bpm during the first weeks of pregnancy. It increases and peaks at around weeks 9 to 10, between 140 and 170 bpm.
After then, during the second and third trimesters, a normal fetal heartbeat changes, and now ranges from 110 to 160 bpm. Keep in mind that your baby’s heartbeat may alter throughout your pregnancy and at each prenatal appointment.
Your doctor will monitor your baby’s heartbeat at every visit. He or she will check if it is too slow, too fast, or irregular. If so, there is a small chance that your baby may have a heart condition. If this is the case, a fetal echocardiogram may be scheduled to further assess your baby’s heart.
Key Takeaway
The prenatal team can closely monitor your baby’s heartbeat throughout your pregnancy and into labor and delivery. Your doctor will check on your baby’s heartbeat at every prenatal appointment. You may hear it for the first time as early as six weeks.
If you have any questions, speak with your doctor.
Learn more about Being Pregnant here.
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