Heartbeat at how many weeks. When does the fetal heartbeat appear and what should it be like? At what week of pregnancy can you hear the fetal heart?

For every woman, the pregnancy period can be considered one of important points in life. At every ultrasound, a woman expects to hear something new about her baby, that it is developing within normal limits. But the most important information for the expectant mother is that the baby’s heart is already beating. With an ultrasound, you can also hear the heartbeat of the embryo. At a later date, you can listen to the baby’s heartbeat, even while at home.

Many hospitals also offer another abnormality test after 20 weeks, making more detailed check child development. Unfortunately, sometimes these checks show that the child died, perhaps several weeks ago and often without any signs or symptoms such as bleeding or pain. This is often called a "missed", "silent" or "delayed" miscarriage. This can be quite a shock and it may take time before you can accept this information.

You may also have to make some difficult decisions about how to manage the miscarriage process. You may be sent for an early scan because of vaginal bleeding or spotting, or perhaps because you had problems in a previous pregnancy.

So at what week does the embryo develop a heart and start beating? From the first minutes of its existence, the embryo consumes energy and oxygen thanks to the mother’s body, and already from 22 obstetric week the embryo develops a single-chamber heart. At normal operation The child’s full development of the heart occurs and over time, the single-chamber heart turns into a two-chamber one, and then into a four-chamber one, which will correspond to the full-fledged heart of an adult. The formation of a heart can be seen on an ultrasound at the end of the sixth obstetric week and you can even hear it beating in the mother’s womb.

The best time to scan is from around 7 weeks of pregnancy, when it should be possible to see the baby's heartbeat normal pregnancy. But it may be difficult to detect a heartbeat on early stages pregnancy, and in these cases it can be difficult to know whether the baby has died or not developed at all, or is simply smaller than expected but still developing.

What should the fetal heartbeat be like during pregnancy?

For this reason, you may be asked to return for another scan a week or so later. At this time, the person performing the scan will look for a clear difference in the size of the gestation sac and developing child and heartbeat. Sometimes it may take you several scans before you know exactly what's going on. It can be very stressful to deal with this uncertainty - some women describe it as being in limbo. You may need to find some support if this happens to you.

How can you listen to a baby's heartbeat in the womb?

To be able to listen to the baby’s heartbeat in the womb, it is recommended to use one of the following methods:

Ultrasound. It helps to hear the fetal heart even at the earliest stage, where 4-7 weeks of pregnancy, but this is only with the help of transvaginal examination. With a transabdominal ultrasound, the baby's heartbeat will be heard at 7-8 weeks of pregnancy.
Stethoscope. At every scheduled appointment, the obstetrician should listen to the baby's heart using a stethoscope. The longer the pregnancy, the more clearly the heart can be heard.
At home, the baby’s heartbeat can be heard, but in practice it will be difficult to recognize it due to the noise of the mother’s body. To listen to the heartbeat at any stage of pregnancy, you need to purchase a special device, but how much you will have to spend on it is another question.

When can you hear an embryo's heartbeat on an ultrasound?

Every mother wonders when the fetal heart begins to beat and when it can be heard. On ultrasound future mom can not only see her baby, and initially an embryo, but also hear his heart. Starting from the 22nd day after conception, you can listen to the heart of the future person thanks to transvaginal ultrasound. During pregnancy, a woman has a desire to preserve all moments of the baby’s development, therefore, thanks to modern capabilities this has become more accessible and it is possible to record the work of the heart after each ultrasound scan.

Ultrasound scan results - and what they mean

If the scan does cause a heartbeat and the baby appears to have right size according to your dates, this can be very reassuring even if you are still bleeding. There is a heartbeat and pregnancy is " right size for dates" - that is, the size that would be expected on the first day of your last period. These are positive signs, but if you continue to bleed, you may need a further scan in a week or two to check what's going on. The pregnancy may be much smaller than it should be according to the dates, or the heartbeat may be particularly slow or weak. With double or multiple pregnancy The scan may show that one baby has a heartbeat and another does not. You may be asked to return for another scan, perhaps in a week or two, when everything should be clearer. Missed Miscarriage This is where the baby died or failed to develop, but your body did not miscarry him or her. The scan shows a gestational sac with a baby inside, but no heart attack, and the pregnancy looks smaller than it should be at this stage. You may have had little or no sign that anything is wrong and may still feel pregnant. The miscarriage process has begun, but there is still pregnancy tissue in the uterus and you may still have pain and heavy bleeding.

Permanent pregnancy, which indicates a problem.
There may be something that indicates a problem with the child's development.
Pregnancy of unknown location.
The pregnancy is not visible and it is unclear what is happening.
There may still be a small amount of tissue or blood in the uterus.
This means that the pregnancy has not survived, but has not yet been miscarried.
You may hear it described in one of the following ways.
Or embryonic pregnancy.
This is a rather old-fashioned way of describing a missed miscarriage.
The scan image usually shows an empty pregnancy sac.
Illegal miscarriage.

In all of these situations, the pregnancy will fail completely over time, but there are several ways to manage the process.

Norms

The correct development of the fetus is determined by parameters, depending on what stage and month of pregnancy the examination was carried out. Each week is characterized by its own parameters.

So, until 6 weeks heartbeat embryo is slowed down. By week 10, the number of contractions should be increased to 180 beats per minute. From the second and third trimester, the pulsation is 120-160 beats and should be rhythmic. The heartbeat of the future person is important indicator normal intrauterine development. If the size of the fetus is 7-9 mm, and there is no beating, then this indicates a frozen pregnancy.

You may be given a choice, or the hospital may make a recommendation. In most cases, you should be able to think about what is best to deal with.

The fetal heart rate has the following characteristics. There are several methods used by doctors to determine fetal heart rate and speed for routine and high-risk pregnancies.

At home

The fetal heartbeat is first detected and measured on ultrasound approximately 5-6 weeks after the last menstrual cycle. When there are complications in the first weeks of pregnancy, such as vaginal bleeding, a visible heartbeat on a prenatal ultrasound at five to six weeks is the first confirmation of fetal viability.

It is necessary to monitor the health of a pregnant woman, since it determines how the future baby will develop.

For every woman preparing to experience the joys of motherhood, the most pleasant and long-awaited sound is the heartbeat of an unborn child. It symbolizes the beginning of a new life and the moments of joy and happiness associated with it.

An ultrasound probe is strapped to the mother's abdomen and transmits fetal heart sounds to a computer, which can provide a continuous printout of the results. A separate device, also attached to the abdomen, simultaneously measures uterine contractions. Internal fetal scalp electrode.

Other popular gender prediction tests such as the Gender Test wedding ring, the baby pencil test or the Drano pregnancy test have also never been confirmed. Changes are normal heart rate and schemes help obstetricians medical workers assess whether the fetus is at risk for poor outcomes during pregnancy and childbirth. Ask your doctor or midwife to explain any changes in your baby's heart rate during your prenatal visits and labor.

The heartbeat of a pregnant fetus serves as an important indicator by which a specialist determines such vital factors as blood oxygen saturation, hemoglobin content, features anatomical structure little heart, hormonal functions and features of vegetative nervous system.

Fetal heartbeat analysis is performed using different methods, including an obstetric stethoscope, cardiotocography, ultrasound.
Morning sickness isn't the only one. Here's a list of pregnancy symptoms you might not expect. To find the most up-to-date information, enter the topic you are interested in in the search field. In the movies, the first clue that a woman is pregnant is when she rushes out of bed, lays it down, and runs for the bathtub. But much less is known that the opponent, who, by the way, not only strikes in the morning.

We checked with experts to create an uncensored list you might not have expected. Lindsay, who chairs the Emory University Maternal Division of Fetal Medicine. But most women who get morning sickness also feel sick at other times of the day. Many women find that they go up a bra size or two during pregnancy. Swelling, which signals increased fat stores and breast size, may be accompanied by tenderness.

Regular monitoring of the baby’s heartbeat in the womb is one of the determining factors in the management of pregnancy and childbirth, making responsible decisions that allow in case of emergency save the baby's life.

When does fetal heartbeat occur?

Already during the 2-3 week period of a child’s development, his heart is formed in the mother’s womb. At this stage, a woman may not even suspect that she is pregnant.. The formation of the heart begins with its appearance in the form of a simple tube, which after a couple of weeks acquires an S-shaped bend. For this reason, this period in the development of the heart is called sigmoid.

Avoid spicy foods Don't eat right before you lie down Elevate the head of the bed - try blocks under the head of the mattress Take antacids. Seasonal may become unpredictable during pregnancy. She says expectant mothers should generally continue to use their inhalers. "If you don't breathe, your baby won't win either."

While a growing belly tends to throw off its center of gravity, it's more important than that. A hormone called relaxin comes toward the end of pregnancy, Stein explains. Its main purpose is to weaken the pelvic joints, making them more flexible during labor. This makes you more unsteady and painful and more likely to fall. With so many changes going on in your body, you may be tempted to dismiss any new discomfort as you normally would during pregnancy. But some symptoms may signal a serious problem: preeclampsia - medical term For dangerous pregnancy. Women who experience any of these symptoms should contact their provider immediately, advises Lindsay.

After 4-5 weeks, the primary septum appears, separating the atria, which leads to the appearance of three chambers in the structure of the small heart. From this moment its first contractions begin. Listening to a knock can only be done using an expert-class ultrasound machine. If there are no special indications for such early listening, it is not worth using.

Early delivery may be required "to avoid life-threatening complications in the mother and fetus." You may be wondering if your pregnancy will be similar next time. Stein says that you are no more or less likely to experience alarming symptoms pregnancy when a second or third child is on the way. But you may be too busy to dwell on the little things, she adds: "As you take care of one child, you become another."

Shortness of breath and palpitations are common features of pregnancy. Although several theories have been proposed to explain the etiology of gestational dyspnea and palpitations, there have been few systematic studies of its incidence, severity and duration in the group normal women.

During weeks 5-7 of embryo development, an indirect indicator is used to determine the nature of embryo development - the level of hCG hormone(chorionic gonadotropin).

For measurements, data are taken over time after 2-3 days. Normally, by week 5, the content of this hormone should fluctuate between 1000-3100 mIU/ml. If pregnancy develops normally in the early stages, then the level of this hormone will double every 2-3 days, then its low

We asked postpartum women, within 3 days of delivery, about shortness of breath and palpitations. The study population included 261 women, of whom 5% and 5% experienced shortness of breath and palpitations, respectively. These symptoms tended to increase before term. The presence of arrhythmias can be recorded in only 22% of patients with 24-hour Holter monitoring.

Shortness of breath and palpitations were common among normal pregnant women and tended to increase before term. Keywords: pregnancy, shortness of breath, palpitations. Shortness of breath is common feature pregnancy. Although this is usually not of sufficient magnitude to have clinical significance, it is sometimes serious enough to be disgusting to the patient and perplexing to the doctor; it can present a challenging diagnostic challenge in a patient with known or suspected heart disease.

Experts believe that analysis for this hormone can be reliable only up to the 10th week of pregnancy. For more later it begins to fall, and its low content during this period corresponds to the physiological norm. This diagnostic method serves as an alternative to ultrasound at the very beginning of pregnancy.

One of the fundamental characteristics during pregnancy, indicating its proper course, is the fetal heartbeat. One of the first methods used to study it by obstetricians is auscultation. It is a physical diagnostic method that allows you to determine the condition of an organ by listening to the sounds it makes.

Some pregnant women also complain of the uncomfortable awareness of heart beatings. In fact, symptoms are common cardiorespiratory reasons for referral to a cardiology or pulmonary clinic during pregnancy. Such information would not only be useful in investigating the cause of these symptoms during pregnancy, but would also be useful in treating patients with pre-existing cardiorespiratory disease who become pregnant.

We interviewed women on the third day postpartum period who had no previous history of cardiorespiratory disease, had a normal unipolar pregnancy and did not develop any obstetric complications, such as preeclampsia. Women suffering from shortness of breath non-pregnant state or cigarette smokers were excluded. Patients who already had supraventricular tachycardia, Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia, were also excluded from this study.

Usually the fetal heart can be heard similar method no earlier than 18-20 weeks of gestation. Until this time, the heartbeat is usually weak; in the early stages, for this reason, it is very difficult to hear without the use of special methods.

Fetal heart rate

Throughout pregnancy, the heart rate changes depending on the activity of the heart and the period of development:

On 6-8 weeks it is not below 110-130 beats per minute;
On 9-10 weeks– 170-190 beats/min.;
Beginning from 11th and more later weeks until childbirth it is in the range of 140-160 beats/min.

Such changes are explained by the continuous development of the fetus, during which the formation of the functioning of the autonomic nervous system occurs, which is responsible for the coherence of the work of all internal organs and systems.

For diagnostic accuracy, doctors use special tables that allow them to monitor whether the development of the heartbeat corresponds to physiological norms. What should the heartbeat be like? different stages Pregnancy can be found in Table 1.

Table 1. Physiological norms period of embryonic development and heart rate

Week of pregnancy	Normal heart rate	Diagnostic methods
5	90-110	-
42922	100-130	Ultrasound
42986	130-150
43049	140-170
41609	140-180
14-15	140-170
16-17	140-170
18-19	130-170
20-21	140-170
22-23	130-160	Cardiotocography on ultrasound
24-40	120-160	Ultrasound, CHT, Listening with a stethoscope (starting from 27-28 weeks)

Purpose of fetal heartbeat detection

Listening to a baby's heart rate before birth is done for several reasons:

Methods for diagnosing fetal heartbeat

The main methods for diagnosing heartbeat intrauterine child serve:

Ultrasonography;
Auscultation;
Cardiotocography (CTG);
Echocardiography.

Ultrasound is the very first method used to study the condition of the embryo.

Using this method we study:

Heart rate;
Fruit size;
Condition of the placenta;
Heart sounds;
Structure of the heart;
Possible defects, as well as other anomalies, if there are reasons for their occurrence.

Features of ultrasound are shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Ultrasound technique for different stages pregnancy

Deadlines	weeks	Sensor used	Indicators	Possible pathologies	Recommendations
Early dates	5-6	Transvaginal	Number of heartbeats	Non-developing pregnancy	Repeat ultrasound in 5-7 days
Early dates	6-7	Transabdominal	Number of heartbeats	Non-developing pregnancy	Repeat ultrasound in 5-7 days
II and III trimesters	From 12 weeks		Number of heartbeats;	Possible heart defects	Application of the “four-chamber slice” technique
			Their frequency;
			The position of the baby's heart in the chest;
			Structure of the atria and ventricles

The auscultation technique involves listening to the following signs:

Heart rate;
Clarity of tones;
A place to listen to them in the best possible way.

Advantage this method is that it can be used by a person who does not have special education. Using a medical tube, you can easily hear heart sounds and count their number per minute using a stopwatch.

It is important to understand what heart sounds are and their significance as an indicator of fetal development. The normal development of the child's body should be accompanied by clear and distinct sounds of the heartbeat.

If the tones become dull, then this may be a sign of acute and chronic hypoxia.

In rare cases, poor listening tone occurs, which is a sign of the need additional methods examinations.

Other methods are also prescribed if:

There are volume changes amniotic fluid(increased or decreased);
In case of multiple pregnancy;
The woman has overweight and the thickness of the subcutaneous fat cell of the anterior peritoneum does not allow the use of auscultation;
The placenta is located at the anterior wall.

The cardiotocography method is very informative for assessing the quality of the heartbeat. When used on early stages presence can be detected oxygen starvation baby for adoption necessary measures. It is usually prescribed after the 32nd week and before birth.

The machine used in this procedure is an ultrasonic transducer. The signals sent from it are reflected from the heart of the embryo. The changes that occur are recorded on a special film.

Typically, in addition to the main sensor, the doctor uses a contraction sensor in the uterus, which makes it possible to measure its activity, which is of particular importance during childbirth. Modern devices also have special sensors that record fetal movements, which a woman can even do independently. The received information is also displayed on the tape.

Recording using this method is carried out with the woman lying on her back. Due to the fact that in the later stages this causes great inconvenience, it may be recommended to take a sitting or lying position on your side.

For this purpose, the sensor is installed on the stomach, where the point of best listening to tones must first be found. The entire procedure is carried out in 40-60 minutes. In some cases, the sensor can be left for a day.

The following indicators are assessed using this method:

Fetal heartbeat and characteristic changes occurring during contractions in the uterus.
Heart rate.
The dynamics of heart contractions (that there are no violations will be indicated by changes in the number of beats within 25 per minute).
The appearance of a rapid rhythm in response to contractions in the uterus, which should not occur normally.
The appearance of rarer contractions is taken as normal in the pelvic position of the fetus, but may also indicate acute or chronic hypoxia in other cases.

During pregnancy, CTG is prescribed to each woman at least once.

According to the standards for this method, which establish how the heart should beat, doctors believe that 120-160 beats should be recorded per minute.

There are a number of indications for repeated mandatory use of this method:

Late gestosis.
The presence of a scar on the uterus due to surgery.
Changes in the volume of amniotic fluid.
Transferred infectious pathologies, at which high temperatures were observed.
Chronic illnesses of the mother ( diabetes, arterial hypertension).
Premature aging of the placenta.

If necessary detailed research the structure of the fetal heart and the characteristics of blood flow in its different parts, echocardiography is prescribed if indicated. It is usually carried out at 18-28 weeks.

Indications for its implementation may be the following:

Available birth defects a woman's heart.
Birth of previous children with congenital defects.
When a woman is over 38 years old.
Infections during pregnancy.
Presence of diabetes mellitus.
Observed delays in intrauterine development of the embryo.
Suspicion of the presence of defects in the fetus of both the heart and other organs, which may be combined with disturbances in the development of the heart.

Fetal Doppler is also used as a technique for studying the heartbeat. This is a portable device that you can use at home yourself. The principle of its operation is similar to CTG, but without recording on film. It comes with headphones, allowing you to listen comfortably at home.

You can hear the baby’s heartbeat as early as 8 weeks, but experts recommend using it later, after 12 weeks, if necessary. The duration of the study should not exceed 10 minutes.

Table 3. Pros and cons of portable Doppler

Is it possible to determine the sex of a child by heart rhythm?

In order to determine the sex of the unborn child, there are a number of traditional methods, which in most cases are rejected by doctors.

Heartbeat is important sign according to folk medicine in this question:

Listening to the heart rhythm by week You can determine whether a boy or a girl will be born, depending on the clarity and rhythm. Usually this is how a boy’s heart beats, while girls’ hearts beat more chaotically, not coinciding with their mother’s.
According to the location of the heart A little to the left predicts the birth of a girl, and to the right - a boy.
Because, How many heart beats happens in a minute, you can determine the gender of the unborn child:

Table 4. Number of heart beats in embryos of different sexes

Listening to the heartbeat of the unborn child important method diagnosing his health condition. It should be used throughout pregnancy.