Parents flock to fetal heart monitors
Add another fad to the growing list for expectant parents: do-it-yourself Doppler. While devices for listening to your baby’s heartbeat in the womb have been on the market for a while, up to this point they have been glorified stethoscopes. Now parents can rent (or buy) their own Doppler device, similar to the ones used by most doctors, and use them at home. Most medical professionals believe that ultrasound technology is safe, but the subject is somewhat controversial. Listening with a Doppler device exposes the growing baby to quite a bit of ultrasound, and it is not known what the effect of long-term exposure really is. You can read more here
Thanks for mentioning this, Laura. While I don’t personally object to once- or twice-a-month doplers, and once- or twice- a pregnancy sonograms, I think more mothers should know the levels of ultrasound technology which their babies are exposed to during hospital labor with (sometimes constant) fetal monitoring. I certainly didn’t know the EFM was ultrasound, even after taking a natural childbirth course. Also, if I bought one of these heart monitors, believeing it to be perfectly safe, I would be tempted to use it *all the time*.
Comment by The Mommy Blawger — September 16, 2005 @ 7:13 pm