Heartbeat & placenta position

[Brisen]

I'm wondering if anyone knows how the position of the placenta might affect hearing the heartbeat with the doppler?  Two weeks ago, I was 12 weeks, and my mw used the doppler.  She put it at my fundus and we heard the heartbeat right away.  Towards the end, I did faintly hear my heartbeat on the doppler along with the baby's.  I'm wondering if the heartbeat would be difficult to hear or if we would have picked up my heartbeat first if the placenta were anterior?  

[Vermillion]

I have an anterior placenta and we weren't able to pick up a heartbeat until 14 weeks. And there were times that we couldn't easily find a heartbeat after having heard the heartbeat before! Very nerve wracking, but luckily my midwife would do a quick ultrasound to reassure me. It probably wasn't until around 20 weeks that we could hear it strong and right away. Before that he was still little and liked to hide behind the placenta!

P.S. My midwife always picked up my heartbeat first until just recently (27 weeks, & I've seen her every 2 weeks since the start) so she'd always check my pulse while she looked for the baby! Mine got HIGH until we'd hear him, so she always wanted to make sure she wasn't hearing me instead of him.

[Brisen]

Thanks for the info -- I'm guessing I probably don't have an anterior placenta, but I guess there's no way to know for sure w/o an ultrasound.