Baby Heart Monitors

At first we were so excited about the prospect of being able to hear the heartbeat of our unborn child. Like many new "parents to be" our enthusiasm exceeded our patience to research and we spied a convenient "solution" at a maternity clothing store. We ended up investing over $50 for our prenatal heart monitor thinking we would be able to enjoy listening to the sound of our child's heartbeat. The first time we used it we could not hear a thing. Well, actually you could hear alot! But, none of the crackling, swooshing sounds were remotely what we expected. We blamed it on ourselves thinking that we may be using it wrong. We reread the directions to find out what the problem could be. "Why can't we hear the heartbeat" we thought. The manual stated that the baby would have to be further along, about 5-6 months before we would be able to hear her actual heartbeat. We thought that a bit odd since we had already heard her little heartbeat so clearly at the doctors office.

Each night we waited with anticipation to hear her heartbeat and no matter how far along my wife got, there was nothing "babylike" to be heard. During one of our visits to the doctor, I mentioned this to him and he stated that only "Doppler" based listening devices would be able to accurately pick up the baby's heart sounds.

That was an eye opener. These Doppler devices are not cheap and you will not find them at malls or maternity clothing stores. If you are interested in buying or renting one, you might try here:

Stork Radio
Baby Beat

I thought to myself "Then how could a company get away with selling a monitor that supposedly picks up the baby's heartbeat?"

Well, our doctor ended up being correct. We never did actually manage to hear Olivia's heartbeat. Right up until the night before she was born, there was nothing but a very random "swooshing" noise coming from the monitor. I will say this though, the item we bought came with a connection that was actually a speaker. Erin would attach the speaker and lay it on her belly each night as she read to the baby. It was apparent that these little speakers actually worked because the first time I ever read to Olivia, she responded immediately because of the change in voice. You see, Erin had been reading to her for months each night. I decided that I wanted to get in on the action. When I started reading, Erin immediately exclaimed that the baby was moving in a way she never had before! We came to the realization that this things value was not in hearing the baby's heartbeat. We were communicating with our child in a more effective way. She could actually hear us! What an amazing experience.

So if you are wondering how effective the typical "store bought" heart monitors can be, we can tell you from experience that personally we feel that they don't really work very well at all. But if you are yearning for your baby to hear your voice more clearly, then our suggestion is to get one of those devices that actually allows you to beam beautiful vocal waves more efficiently into the womb so you can tell your child how much you love them and can't wait to meet them! And of course, savor the opportunity you get to hear your babies heartbeat at the doctor's office.

Here are a few more opinions you might want to consider:

Prenatal Monitor Reviews