Hello World! Welcome Friends! Pregnant women undergo a bevy of medical tests and screenings to monitor their health and that of their baby. These exams provide a lot of information and insight for expectant mothers who want to know about the condition of their babies. But sometimes, these aren’t always enough to satisfy a soon-to-be mom’s anticipation and worry over how their baby is doing.
Fortunately, there are now plenty of ways to check up on your little one, other than visiting your practitioner. Undergoing prenatal tests is still the best way to monitor your baby’s health, but there’s no harm in trying these methods to see what’s going on with your unborn child.
Fetal Heart Rate Monitor
Using a device called fetal doppler monitor, pregnant women can listen to their baby’s heartbeat. Portable dopplers and their pertinent parts and accessories are available in the market, and anyone can use them at home.
Many at-home fetal dopplers can pick up the baby’s heartbeat at 12 to 16 weeks. Some claim to detect the baby’s heartbeat as early as eight to nine weeks.
Before using a fetal doppler, you should first apply a generous amount of ultrasound gel or other lubricants on your lower belly to reduce static. Next, place the ultrasound transducer along your pubic bone, running it upward to your belly button.
Using an at-home fetal doppler can be a fun way to listen to your baby’s heartbeat. Be warned, though: using an at-home doppler cannot substitute for the fetal heart rate monitor at your doctor’s office. Commercial dopplers are not as accurate, and they won’t give you much insight into your baby’s health.
Other than a fetal doppler, you can also use a stethoscope, fetoscope, or Pinard horn to listen to your baby’s heartbeat. They’re usually more affordable than a doppler is.
Pregnancy-Tracking Apps
Thanks to the internet, many soon-to-be moms have access to pregnancy-tracking apps that allow them to do many things. The apps’ functions include keeping track of vitamins or medicines, setting reminders for doctor’s appointments, taking notes of pregnancy symptoms, counting the baby’s kicks, and even timing contractions.
Some apps also let you connect with other expectant moms and share your pregnancy journey with them. Others provide healthy recipes, helpful articles about your baby’s growth, and comprehensive information about what you can expect week by week.
Baby-Kicks Monitor
Babies usually start moving between 16 and 25 weeks of pregnancy. By then, you’ll be able to able to feel your little one’s first movement, also called quickening. At the 28th week of your pregnancy, your health-care provider will advise you to chart your kicks of your baby and pay attention to their movements.
Monitoring your baby’s activity in the womb is one way you can get insights into how they are doing. Any changes in their activity levels or movement patterns may indicate that something is wrong, so it’s enormously important to follow this step.
For this, you can use an exclusive kick-counting app or record the number of kicks on your pregnancy notebook.
When counting your baby’s kicks, pick the time when your baby is most active, usually between 9:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. You can also do the monitoring when you’re about to tuck in at night, after having a snack or light meal, or when you’re feeling nervous.
Take a seat, but keep your feet up or lie on your side, then start counting your baby’s kicks.
Kicks include not only literal kicks but also twists, turns, jabs, and wiggles. Hiccups don’t count. Take note of how long it takes to record ten movements. It can take anywhere between ten minutes to two hours to count ten movements from your baby.
Final Words
While at-home tools and smartphones offer fun and insightful ways to check on your baby, they cannot replace appointments with your pregnancy doctor or midwife. Do not rely too much on these technologies to monitor your unborn child.
Further, be extra careful about the gadgets you buy or use on yourself during pregnancy and the articles you read online or anywhere else. Check with your health-care provider first if these tools are safe and if the pieces of information you found are correct.
Related Resource for First Time Moms: Reduce Leg Swelling During Pregnancy
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Toodles,
It’s amazing how technology progressed! Before, moms can only touch their belly with their hands and just feel what their baby’s up to, but now… Wonder how things would be after some more years? 😊