Are At-Home Fetal Dopplers Safe and Accurate?

Tempted to buy one of those inexpensive fetal Dopplers so you can hear your baby's heartbeat between practitioner visits?

Being able to monitor your baby's heart could be fun, but listen to this: According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Doppler devices are prescription devices designed for use only by health professionals. What’s more, the FDA warns against using over-the-counter machines — including 3D and 4D ultrasounds and home fetal Dopplers — without a doctor. Here’s why:

There’s no proven benefit to at-home fetal heart monitors

Although ultrasounds are non-invasive and very low-risk, and there has been no evidence of harm from using fetal Doppler devices (which sends sound waves through your skin to confirm fetal sound or movement), the at-home variety hasn't been shown to provide any medical benefit. 

Plus, it's difficult to study any long-term effects of frequent use, leaving the possibility of unintended consequences.

At-home baby heart monitors don’t work as well 

These inexpensive fetal Dopplers, also called doptones, aren't as sophisticated as the one your medical practitioner uses. Most of them aren’t nearly sensitive enough to pick up the faint noises of your baby’s heart until later in pregnancy. 

In fact, even the high-tech fetal Doppler used in your practitioner’s office doesn’t always pick up fetal cardiac activity until somewhere between week 9 and week 14 of pregnancy, since it depends on the position of your baby in your womb and other factors. A true heartbeat doesn't develop until roughly weeks 17 to 20 of pregnancy, when the heart chambers have developed enough to appear on an ultrasound.

Use one before the third trimester, and you'll likely be met with silence, the sound of air moving through your GI tract, or the whoosh of blood flowing through your own arteries instead of a steady thump-thump. That, in turn, can increase worry unnecessarily instead of putting it to rest.

It’s difficult to find fetal heartbeats on at-home Dopplers

Over-the-counter fetal Dopplers can't always pick up what you're looking for even if you try them later in your pregnancy. Baby’s position or a bad angle on the device can easily throw off a home fetal Doppler.

Or you may pick up the sound of blood flowing through the placenta and mistake it for a heartbeat. That's especially true for stand-alone apps that use your phone's microphone, which are notoriously unreliable, even in the third trimester.

The readings on at-home fetal Dopplers won’t tell you much

If you do manage to pick up the right noise, you may have trouble interpreting what it means. In fact, the readings may be different enough from what you're used to hearing at your practitioner visits that they cause undue concern.

The only way to possibly hear your baby’s heart at home more accurately is to use the same type of fetal Doppler monitor your practitioner uses, and over-the-counter versions of that kind of handheld ultrasound device cost several hundred dollars.

Still can’t resist having a fetal Doppler heart monitor of your own? Be sure to talk with your practitioner before placing your order.

There's no doubt that hearing the pitter-patter of a baby’s heart is music to every pregnant woman’s ears. But your best bet is to sit tight for a few more months rather than springing for a home fetal Doppler you can use yourself. You’ll soon be able to listen to that glorious heartbeat as much as you want — minus the wishy-washy technology.