QuestionI am 29, have advanced endometriosis, and am IVF pregnant and 12 weeks along, after 8 years of marriage and infertility.
Yesterday, when I went to my OBGYN, she tried to listen to the heartbeat externally, and she couldn't locate the baby/heartbeat. She went all over my tummy, as low as she could go, and we didn't hear anything. I was alarmed.
She pulled in the ultrasound machine and did an external sonogram. We could now see the baby moving its arms, we saw developed fingers and also detected its heart fluttering. She told me we didn't hear anything the first time because the baby was too low.
At the time, I was convinced everything was okay, but I have been up all night and thinking all morning about anything abnormal in not being able to hear the heartbeat. Why is the baby too low? Is that bad? So far I have been monitored every week, then every two weeks, and I have always heard aloud the baby's heartbeat. Now I am worried, and I don't have to go back until next month to see my doctor.
Is there any reason for me to be concerned at this point? I tried to call up my doctor this morning, it seems she is in the hospital herself!
Please advice, I hope I am over-reacting!
AnswerAs long as you saw an active fetus and a fetal heartbeat on sonogram, all is well. Your doctor did not hear the baby's heartbeat, not because the baby was too low, but because she did not go low enough on your abdomen to hear it. If she spent more time looking for the heartbeat, she would have eventually found it. It does not mean anything at all is wrong with the baby. Sometimes, it takes me quite some time to locate the fetal heartbeat with a doppler stethoscope. As long as the sonogram showed a good fetal heartbeat you have nothing to concern yourself about.
