How To Choose A Suitable Home Fetal Heart Rate Monitor？

Fetal heart rate monitors are one of the common home fetal heart rate monitoring instruments. They can be used to monitor the fetal heart rate and observe the health of the fetus. They are especially suitable for pregnant women over 16 weeks of gestation to detect the fetal heart rate at home.

 

 

 

Fetal heart rate monitors are an ultrasonic instrument designed specifically for pregnant women and are a national key management measuring instrument. The principles for purchasing them are as follows:

 

(1) As a national key management measuring instrument, a fetal heart rate monitor must obtain a manufacturing measuring instrument license (CMC mark) in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Metrology Law" and undergo regular metrological calibration. Only after the metrological calibration is qualified can it be used for fetal heart rate monitoring and fetal movement abnormality monitoring for pregnant women.

(2) Check the sound power value and spatial peak time average sound intensity of the ultrasound probe in the product manual. Only when the spatial peak time average sound intensity is less than 100mW/cm² , can it be safely used by pregnant women.

(3) Check whether the ultrasound probe has a waterproof function. If it does not have a waterproof function, ultrasound cream and sweat will flow into the probe and cause an internal short circuit, and will breed bacteria and cause infection to pregnant women. A fetal heart rate monitor without a waterproof function is definitely not a safe fetal heart rate monitor.

(4) Check whether it has a display screen. With a display screen, the fetal heart rate can be directly displayed on it, without having to calculate it by listening to the fetal heart rate. It can reflect the health status of the fetus faster and more accurately.

(5) Check whether the battery is a lithium battery. Lithium batteries have stable power supply. There's no noise, and dpn't generate infrasound and are of low cost.

 

 

Pregnant women should listen to the fetal heart rate three times a day, morning, noon and evening, each time for 1min~2min. The normal fetal heart rate is 120 beats/min~160 beats/min. If the fetal heart rate and fetal movement are abnormal, please record the fetal sound in time and go to the hospital for examination and treatment immediately.

 

• Morning: within 30 minutes after the pregnant woman gets up;
• Noon: within 60 minutes after the pregnant woman has lunch;
• Evening: within 30 minutes before going to bed at night.

 

In addition, please pay attention to evenly apply a layer of coupling agent, clean water or cooking oil on the probe when using it, which can generally be directly attached to the abdominal skin.

 

 

Is it necessary to buy a fetal heart monitor to listen to the fetal heart rate myself?

 

At 10 weeks of pregnancy, the fetal heartbeat can be seen by ultrasound examination, and at 12-13 weeks of pregnancy, the fetal heartbeat can be heard through the Doppler fetal heart monitor.

Pregnant mothers will also hear a "gurgling" sound similar to water flow, which is the sound of blood flowing in the umbilical cord.

At 18-29 weeks of pregnancy, you can feel the baby's "beating" heartbeat with a stethoscope.

Fetal heart monitoring

Fetal heart monitoring is one of the indicators that indirectly and comprehensively judges the intrauterine development of the fetus through the change pattern of the fetal heart rate. Monitoring the fetal heart rate can timely detect whether the fetus is suffering from intrauterine hypoxia.

Most hospitals will start fetal heart monitoring for normal low-risk pregnant women at 35-36 weeks of pregnancy.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends:

For high-risk pregnant women with comorbidities or complications, such as gestational diabetes, pregnancy-induced hypertension, cholestasis, etc. that require special testing, the start time of fetal heart monitoring should be advanced to 26-28 weeks, and the monitoring frequency should be at least 2 times a week. If there is an abnormality in fetal heart monitoring, monitoring should be continued until normal or delivery.