Heartbeat Controversy.

After yesterday's post on Charles and I being in disagreement on the beats per minute the Dr guesstimated our baby's heart was beating, I got lots of opinions. So let me try to back up why I believe the Dr said 104...

"Fetal heart rate tends to vary with gestational age in the very early parts of pregnancy. Normal heart rate at 6 weeks is around 90-110 beats per minute (bpm) and at 9 weeks is 140-170 bpm. At 5-8 weeks a bradycardia (less than 90 bpm) is associated with a high risk of miscarriage." from Obstetric Ultrasound

"Generally from 6 ½ -7 weeks is the time when a heartbeat can be detected and viability can be assessed. A normal heartbeat at 6-7 weeks would be 90-110 beats per minute." from American Pregnancy

So I am expecting when we go for another ultrasound at 8w 1d to most certainly see an increase in the heart rate. Probably not quite to the 140 bpm mark yet but pretty darn close anyways.

And that my friends, is two backings on my thoughts that Dr. S said the heart rate was about 104...

Comments

squirrelgirl said…
Looks like good info to me. I never looked for a heartbeat that early, so I never knew that. Thanks for providing the links!
Ray and Chrissy said…
Well, I am sure the next time you go in the doc can confirm the BPM with you (no doubt he wrote it all down for you). I don't think I was told what Clara's heart rate was until she was 10 or 11 weeks (when we finally could hear it).