Hearing the heartbeat

[Anonymous]

When did everyone hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time?
My doctor said 12 weeks and that sounds late to me.

[Anonymous]

You will probably at least see it at the 8 week appointment if you get an ultrasound. how far along are you?

[Anonymous]

My doctor always had our first appt at 9 weeks and she would do an ultrasound and let us see and hear the heartbeat there.

[Anonymous]

I went in for an appt at around 12 weeks and reported some spotting, and the doctor freaked out and ordered an ultrasound b/c she said she would not be able to hear the heartbeat on the doppler yet. She was pretty young and might not have known what she was talking about (u.s. was fine), but 12 weeks doesn't seem that far along for hearing the heartbeat without an ultrasound.

With an ultrasound you can definitely hear it much earlier. I got my first u.s. around 7 weeks and saw and heard the heartbeat just fine.

[Anonymous]

I heard the heartbeat at around 12 weeks with a doppler. I was told that it can be difficult to hear the heartbeat with a doppler any earlier than that. Though with an ultrasound, it's probably a different story.

[Anonymous]

With my first pregnancy, it was picked up on Doppler at about 10 1/2 weeks, but it took a few minutes of searching to get it. At 12 weeks the doctor couldn't get it again by doppler (baby was fine). I think it depends on the mother's size and baby's positioning.

[Anonymous]

I saw it very early on - like 6 weeks. But we went through IVF, the docs had the sono machine in the office, and we could see it (I guess more accurate) that hear it, though the computer showed the heartbeat rate etc. Maybe their equipment is better though??

[Anonymous]

PP-She wants to know when you can hear the hb with a doppler, not a sono. 2 very different methods of checking on baby.

[Anonymous]

Meant to write ultrasound, not sono.

[Anonymous]

I heard the heartbeat at 8 weeks.

[Anonymous]

I am the PP who heard it at 8 weeks. I had an ultrasound at 8 weeks, that's how I heard it. When your Dr. says 12 weeks, it might be that what he or she is thinking about is hearing the heartbeat with a doppler. I think you have to wait longer to hear it with doppler only, you can hear it sooner with an ultrasound.

[Anonymous]

12 weeks to hear with the doppler sounds about right to me. I just had a check up at 10 weeks and the doctor tried with the doppler and couldn't hear it, but we did an u/s and saw it fine. The doctor told me that 10 weeks would be very early to hear it so no worries that we couldn't. I also have a tipped uterus, which he says can make it harder to hear early... I think a lot of it has to do with position of the baby.

[Anonymous]

I saw/heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time around 6.5 weeks with an INTERNAL ultrasound. I was there to date my pregnancy, and they warned me that at that time it might still be too early to see/hear the heartbeat.

I started my monthly visits around 10.5 weeks, and they started using the doppler then.

I had my nuchal test at 12.5 weeks - they use an external ultrasound for that one. We could see/hear everything quite easily at that point.

I would caveat what PP mentioned - probably depends on your size and where the embryo implanted.

[Anonymous]

I heard my baby's heartbeat at my very first OB appointment at eight weeks...though they ended up adjusting my due date, so it was probably more like 6.5-7 weeks. I want to think that until I was around 12 weeks, they always said "don't worry if we don't pick it up, it's still really early to hear it," but it was always there.

[Anonymous]

We heard the heartbeat at our 8 week appointment.