A fetal heart monitor can help bring you closer together as a family. They are machines your doctor or midwife uses to listen to your baby’s heartbeat. The first time one of these amazing machines allows you to hear your baby’s beating heart is something you will remember forever. Unfortunately sometimes the people you love most in the world are not able to share the experience with you. Only a few people are allowed in the doctors office with you, so you usually have to pick one person to experience this once in a lifetime event. But not anymore.

There are several companies making Fetal Heart Doppler machines and are selling them on the internet. You can allow all of your loved ones to feel closer to you and the baby by allowing them the opportunity to hear the baby’s heart beat before they actually see the baby. Many different companies make these machines and they offer traditional or digital machines. The traditional machines require you to do a little more work if you want the heart rate but you will definitely hear the heartbeat. Some machines will even allow you to record the heartbeat.

The machines are available individually or in a kit with everything you might need to get started right away. You can also buy one to use over and over, or rent one for a month or more. They are very affordable to rent, running around $25 to $50 a month. The to buy one is pretty reasonable too, running from $49 and up. Remember that the FDA classifies these machines as a Class II Medical device. That means you need authorization from a licensed caregiver to rent or purchase one. A licensed caregiver can differ from state to state put generally include OB/GYN, Medical doctor, Nurse practitioner, Psychiatrist, Dentist, and Podiatrist. This is required so that the mother has professional advice on how to use the machine for the safety of the mother and the baby.

Many companies will contact your doctor to make the process go faster for you. You can insure the machine if you rent it for a reasonable, usually one time, cost. Shipping is often free, but if you want it overnight the faster shipping costs extra. These machines are not intended as a substitute for prenatal care. They should not be used to diagnosis any problems. But if you want to share the feeling you get when you hear the baby’s heartbeat not only with your husband, but with your other children, or anyone else you love, these machines can be an affordable way to do that. People who have never been pregnant often don’t see the baby as real until the pregnancy is well advanced. These machines can usually detect a heartbeat as early as 8 weeks.

The sound of the baby will bring home the reality of the living, breathing baby growing inside and can give others the close, protective feelings you have and bring your whole family closer together. Last but not least be sure to return the machine if you rent it. It is easy to forget this. Many rental companies will give you with a printed return label along with free return shipping. If you keep the package that the Doppler was mailed to you in return shipping can be simple.

Previously confined to hospitals and other professional medical settings, fetal heart dopplers have endeared millions across the world and turned itself into a home utility for both reassurance of infant safety and development of bonding between the baby and loved ones. If you have no idea what a doppler is or why you might want one, then rest assured, you’ve come to the right place. By the time you’re done reading this article, if you don’t own a fetal doppler, you may very well want to run out and buy one. A baby heart doppler is an ultrasound-based machine, and dopplers that specialize in recording fetal hearts measure out heartbeats of babies not yet born, and then translate those beats into a sound everyone nearby can hear. They were originally invented by a doctor decades ago, and have since been widely used in medical settings. However, they’re so easy to afford and use that more and more expectant mothers are buying them for home use.

Using a prenatal doppler is so simple even a child who wants to listen to their soon to be baby brother or sister can do it. A small amount of ultrasound gel is smeared on the stomach, and the rounded, microphone-like probe is held to the area and passed over it repeatedly in a circular motion. The device then creates an approximation of the baby’s heartbeat in sound for everyone nearby to hear. For this near-miraculous ability to hear the heartbeat of a little growing baby not yet born, you can expect to pay under a hundred dollars even for a very good doppler device! Being able to hear a baby’s heartbeat whenever you want, without going to a doctor’s office, can help you keep an eye on heartbeat-based irregularities and medical problems. In some situations you can spot the problem and get help before tragedy strikes and it’s too late. Without a doppler, that option isn’t available to you.

Besides being a useful safeguard, the feeling of connection with the growing life in the womb is sure to make loved ones feel closer to the baby even before it’s born. Listening in on the heartbeat can become a communal activity, and dopplers are small enough that you can easily carry them in a large purse to a baby shower or other social event. Dopplers are safe, inexpensive, and highly useful… so why wouldn’t you want one? Even if you don’t care to buy something you would use for possibly just a single pregnancy, there are doctor-run companies that rent out high-quality dopplers to those that don’t want to invest in such a tool permanently. If you’re having a baby or thinking about having one, a doppler can practically be your one solid connection to that baby while it’s still in the womb. Isn’t that worth a few bucks?

When you visit the OB/GYN, the staff listens to your baby’s heartbeat with a device called a fetal heart doppler and creates a sonogram. These devices are so named because they are based on a theory first proposed by a scientist named Doppler in the mid-1800. Many people are familiar with the “Doppler Effect,” which is the rising and falling sound as noisy object like a car approaches and passes you, or have heard their weatherman cite “Doppler Radar” when tracking the movement of a storm system. The concept is now a very important in medical imaging technology, as well.

At the doctor’s office, the technician probably explained to you that the Doppler uses sound wave, not x-rays, to create an image of your developing baby. A very high frequency sound wave is directed into your body by an emitter that is rubbed on your belly. Those sound waves are transmitted through your amniotic fluid and reflect back from the surface of your baby’s body, like navies use sonar to track underwater shapes. The baby has no perception of this happening, just as you cannot hear the sound waves. The device at the doctor’s office is highly specialized, and very expensive, because it converts sound waves to a visual image for you to see. But, this doesn’t have to be the case.

The device could be much simpler if the doctor only wanted to listen and not see. In fact, these simplified devices are available for purchase and use at home. Much as an intercom lets you hear sounds from your baby’s nursery anywhere in the house, a fetal heart monitor allows you to listen in on your baby’s heart whenever you want to, and not just at the doctor’s office. If you have experienced complications with past pregnancies, or if there is risk involved with your current pregnancy, then an at home fetal heart monitor can proved a sense of comfort for you. It may ease your anxiety and reduce your stress, or at the other end of the spectrum it may alert you to a problem that needs attention when it happens, not when you visit the doctor’s office.

Fetal heart monitors are modern electronic devices, and just like cell phones or PDAs they come with a wide range of available features. They generally run on batteries and are small enough that you can carry them with you in your purse. Digital monitors automatically display your baby’s heart rate, while others simply amplify the sound of the heartbeat. Some models can record your baby’s heartbeat as an MP3 that you can save and e-mail to family and friends. These devices cost in the neighborhood of $500, so they aren’t inexpensive. However, they can also be rented from medical supply companies for the term of your pregnancy at much lower costs. An online search will return dozens of companies who rent the devices.

A fetal doppler is used to locate and hear the heartbeat of an unborn baby. Ultrasound technology is used to detect the baby’s heart beat. An oil or gel is applied to a woman’s belly in order to facilitate the easy movement of the doppler. The doppler will then detect the sounds within the womb through ultrasound. Depending on the type of doppler used the heartbeat can be registered through an auditory method such as a beep or through a print out. When selecting a doppler it is important that you are able to understand the readings obtained from the doppler so it is necessary to either purchase a doppler that is easy to understand or consult with your physician to in order to understand the readings correctly.

A fetal heart beat doppler can produce information that will give you current information on the condition of a fetus. There are some machines that can provide a print out that will not only show the heart beat pattern but also the amount of beats per minute. This information can be used by either the mother or a physician to determine if the unborn baby has any medical conditions. It is important the print outs are read accurately as the results can assist in addressing problems with a fetus. These types of machines are not hand held. There are sensors that are placed on the pregnant woman’s stomach to locate the heartbeat. Those sensors are attached to a stand alone machines that provides a printout of the baby’s heartbeat. Sometimes these types of monitors are used to determine if the fetus is under any significant stress. They are sometimes considered more accurate and in depth than other monitors but not always so easy to read and understand if you lack medical expertise.

A simple fetal heart monitor is suggested for those who wish to monitor a baby’s heart beat on a regular basis from home in between pre-natal visits. Most of the monitors on the market are hand held and easy to operate. Some even come with a headphone attachment that will allow the mother to listen to the heartbeat closer. The readings from a baby heart doppler are relative. Most of the more expensive monitors provide a better reading.

In addition to purchasing quality fetal heart monitors the method used to obtain the baby’s heart beat is also important for obtaining a positive reading. The doppler must be placed on the abdomen from the underneath the breasts to a few inches below the belly button. To facilitate the easy movement of the doppler, a water based gel should be used on the abdomen. All dopplers have an area that resembles a microphone. This is the portion that should be faced down on the belly in order for the ultrasound to pick up the heartbeat. The doppler should be moved in circles around the belly until the heartbeat is located. Depending on the type of doppler you have, you may hear a beeping sound which will let you know that a heartbeat is detected. For those dopplers that have a LCD screen the number of beats per minute will be recorded on the screen.

Ultimately, when choosing a fetal doppler for personal use it is always best to purchase one that is both easy to use and will provide results that are easy to understand.