How to Listen to Fetal Heartbeat at Home With Doppler or a Stethoscope

Listening to your unborn baby's heartbeat can give you a thrill like no other. It can also be intensely reassuring. Starting as early as the 9th or 10th week of pregnancy, your baby's fetal heart beat may be detectable on doppler in the doctor's office. Whether you can or can't hear it this early depends on the positioning of the instrument and how much padding the sound waves have to travel through. You should, however, be able to hear the fetal heartbeat by week 12 using doppler waves. Besides listening at the physician's office, there are also ways you can listen to the fetal heartbeat at home.

Things You'll Need

  • Doppler monitor
  • Ultrasound gel
  • Stethoscope

Instructions

    • 1

      Buy or borrow a stethoscope after 20 weeks of pregnancy. A normal stethoscope is much cheaper than a home doppler monitor (also called a baby heart monitor). You can also use a fetoscope, which is specially designed for listening to the fetal heartbeat, but you don't need to.

    • 2

      Position the stethoscope on your abdomen firmly in different places over the uterus, aiming to find the fetus's back.

    • 3

      Listen for a galloping heartbeat that's about twice as fast as your own. (You may hear your own, as well, through one of your major abdominal arteries). It may take a few minutes before you can hear your baby's heartbeat. If you can't hear it using a stethoscope, this may be because of the position of the placenta.

    • 4

      To listen by doppler, consult with your healthcare provider first. Then buy or rent a doppler machine if you have trouble hearing the baby's hearbeat with a stethoscope or if you want to listen to it at home earlier than at 20 weeks, and starting at 12 weeks.

    • 5

      Avoid checking your baby's heartbeat with doppler frequently and out of casual interest--as with everything pertaining to the fetus, it's wise to be "prudent," according to the American Institute of of Ultrasound in Medicine. Treat it like the medical procedure it is. Though as of this writing, the FDA says doppler instruments can be used as often as needed, just to be safe, it's best to use the doppler at home only briefly (for no more than 10 minutes), only as needed (rather than daily), and only after the first trimester has passed.

    • 6

      Start with a full bladder. Generously rub ultrasound gel on the doppler probe. Recline back comfortably with your abdomen exposed. Turn on the doppler machine.

    • 7

      Run the probe slowly, gently and firmly over your lower abdomen under your navel. Tilt it this way and that, slowly. It may take time and practice before you can hear the rapid heartbeat and identify it definitively as your baby's.

    • 8

      Adjust the volume up or down when you hear the sound of a heartbeat. This makes it easier to listen clearly and distinguish the sound.

      Optionally, calculate the fetus's heartbeat by using a stopwatch.

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