![]() ![]() However, we don’t know enough about whether frequent use or overuse is harmful to babies. Researcher, speaker, midwife and author Dr Sara Wickham also raises concerns about ultrasounds in an article she wrote recently and states “Doppler ultrasound can be very useful when employed judiciously. Women see all this technology used on them or in TV programs about birth and think this must be a good thing.” Unfortunately health providers are modelling poor practice in this area by their own excessive use of technology that has little evidence to support it. Dopplers should be in the same category as a medication, and you would not self-prescribe medication. Any significant changes in the baby’s movements need to be reported and followed up by a health provider. The best indication of a baby’s wellbeing is the movements and women are the experts of that. Hannah Dahlen, Professor of Midwifery and Researcher at the University of Western Sydney said “The increased use of hand held Dopplers by women at home is concerning as they can give false reassurance on the one hand and cause unnecessary anxiety on the other when you are not trained to know what to listen for. When something doesn’t feel right, women are reaching for the doppler, and they hear that swishing thumping sound and it gives them reassurance that everything must be okay because they can hear their baby’s heartbeat. Dopplers are medical devices, and health care providers undertake extensive clinical training to ensure that they understand how to use them and can quickly and accurately identify if there is a problem by assessing the pattern and rate of the baby’s heartbeat. Undoubtedly the steady increase of home dopplers is very concerning to health care providers, because it means that women are not listening to their innate instincts when something feels different and are relying on these devices to indicate if their baby is well. ![]() What happens if you are hearing what you think is your baby’s heartbeat, but it is in fact the cord or placenta? How do you determine if that heartbeat rate is what it should be? What happens when you can’t hear the heartbeat? We understand the excitement of hearing your baby’s heartbeat and making sure that everything is going well. This blog might create a little fear, because I do talk about stillbirth, but it is about educating women and their partners and recognising that home dopplers can be fun, but there are risks associated with using them so raising awareness is the aim. They are a very popular purchase by or for couples expecting a baby, especially with anxious first-time mums. We are seeing a rise in marketing for home dopplers and phone Apps, which monitor baby’s heartbeat while they are inutero. Home foetal dopplers and Apps are becoming more concerning as we see social media inundated with marketing for these devices. ![]()
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