What are fetal heart monitors?
Fetal heart monitors can be bought online and in some shops from about £25. Some are just sound amplifiers, letting you listen to your baby in the womb using headphones. Higher end models, selling from around £70 to £100, are genuine ultrasound devices, and may have a screen that displays your baby’s heart rate. Some retailers, like Mothercare, make clear that the devices are for entertainment only, and shouldn’t be relied on for medical purposes. However, others do not make this distinction: one monitor claims to “give you the peace of mind that your baby is safe and well at all times throughout your pregnancy”. Doctors from the Princess Royal Hospital in Brighton have warned that these products do no such thing. How can home monitoring be dangerous? Your baby’s heartbeat is just one of many things that doctors consider when checking the health of an unborn baby. Relying on a heart monitor can be falsely reassuring, and there have been cases of mothers not getting urgent medical help
