[haren.13]

Hi ladies

I'm 27w with baby #2 and just sold my doppler and got a fetoscope instead ~ woohoo! I hadn't used the doppler much since reading about the potential risks, but I still like to hear the baby

My MW uses one and I've been able to hear the heartbeat on hers a couple of times. I tried mine today and, while I picked up the heartbeat pretty clearly, it sounds a LOT different than it does when I listen to my MW's fetoscope. Are there tricks to using them? It seems pretty straightforward, but maybe I'm missing something!

With hers, it's pretty loud, whooshy noises (I'm guessing the blood flow through the placenta?), and the thumpety thump heartbeat. With mine, I can't hear *any* whooshing, and the heartbeat is a very very faint ticking. I know how to palpate the baby to find out where to put the fetoscope (I think, anyway!) and I'm pretty sure I had it in the right place, though I did try some other spots to make sure. Any tips would be appreciated!

 

[mwherbs]

try to locate the back and then listen there/ early on it is easier to hold a hand pressed in some on the side the baby isn't in to discourage swimming away from where you are listening--
be sure that the holes in the ear pieces are lined up into your ear canal, (fit can be important here too, you may need a different size or type of ear piece)anyway placement of the ear holes is usually a bit forward from straight in so the ear tubes themselves are tilted a bit back- think elephant ears- move them around until you can find the best sound-- you can practice/fine tune by listening to your own heart until you get the loudest/clearest sounds then try listening to the baby- relax your jaw/hang your jaw can improve the sound as well-

 

[haren.13]

THANK YOU!!!

Ok, so I totally had the earpieces in my ears backward! Now it sounds much more like what I've heard before

I didn't think about needing to point the holes into my ear canals (though now it seems SOOO obvious!)