Baby Heartbeat Monitor Buying Guide

Having a baby is a wonderful and joyous event and every mother wants to make sure her baby is in the best of health, even between pre-natal visits.  For first time mothers, a great way to do this is to invest in a baby heartbeat monitor.

Essentially, a baby heartbeat monitor is a hand-held device that uses sonogram technology to detect the sounds within the womb, where the sounds are audible through a built in microphone that is connected to the monitor. A good monitor will not only be able to pick up the baby’s heartbeat, it will also be able to detect the baby’s movements as well. How fantastic would it be to be able to hear and feel a baby kicking!

While most mothers buy a baby heartbeat monitor for a general sense of assurance that their baby is doing well in between pre-natal visits, some mothers purchase the monitor for more urgent reasons. This may include worried mothers who cannot feel the baby moving for an extended period of time, and also mothers who are categorized as “high risk” because of some medical reason (like being a diabetic).

A good time to buy a baby heartbeat monitor is when your fetus is between 14 and 16 weeks. This is also the best time for you and your husband to start bonding with the little one in your tummy because the sound of the heartbeat is the most powerful reinforcement that you are going to be starting a family, or adding another member into your family. Some smart mothers even save the heartbeats on their computer and email it to their family and friends. What a great idea!

Unlike some other baby products, this devices is really easy to use. When using for the first time, it might take 1 to 2 minutes of searching before you hear the baby’s heartbeat. After a number of attempts, you will be able to locate the heartbeat within a few seconds. While you are advised to put some gel on your tummy before you start detecting the heartbeat, most mothers find that baby oil or even water works just as well.

Place the doppler about 3 inches below the belly button and move across your tummy smoothly and slowly. You have found your baby’s heartbeat when you hear a distinctive “swooshing” sound. If you are having difficulty finding a heartbeat, try turning off all other electronic devices in the room, like the television, radio, ceiling fan, and air conditioner. Also, if there is anyone else in the room with you, ask them to be very still and quiet while you are using the monitor.

There are many brands of baby heartbeat monitors in the market and most of them have differing features. When you are shopping for a monitor, do keep the following tips in mind:

• Make sure your baby heartbeat monitor has a frequency of 2mghz or 3mghz because the wavelengths are able to penetrate deeper which allows an earlier heartbeat detection.Some monitors come equipped with a LCD screen that displays the number of heartbeats in a specific period of time. Unfortunately, these units are also usually more expensive. An alternative is to forgo this feature and use a stopwatch to manually time the heartbeats.
• Most monitors manufactured today are lightweight which is really handy for mothers who need to travel for work or home-bound mothers who have to use it by themselves.
• While it would be nice to listen to the heartbeat together with your husband, monitors that have multiple jacks or that come with a number of headphones can be more pricey. So if you are on a budget, a device with 1 set of headphones and 1 jack may be the best option.
• Lastly, and this is the most important tip, make sure you purchase a monitor that is medical grade certified and is also FDA approved. The FDA requires that a certain level of criteria has to be fulfilled for medical devices used by consumers without the supervision of a physician. This means that these units are also used by doctors and mid-wives to examine the baby’s heartbeat. Since baby heartbeat monitors emit frequencies, it is crucial that they will not harm the mother or the unborn baby. In addition, a medical grade machine uses higher frequencies and this enables the monitor to pick up heartbeats a lot easier.

If you have narrowed your choices down to a handful of baby heartbeat monitors, then the best advice you can get to make your final decision is to talk to more experienced mothers.