Where to Out Hand to Check Heartbeat of Baby During Pregnancy at Home

i Measure out the mother'southward womb
- 1.one How to measure the womb
  - 1.one.1 To mensurate using the finger method
  - one.1.2 To measure using a soft tape measure
- one.two If the size of the womb is not what you expected
  - 1.two.1 The due date you lot got past counting from the last monthly bleeding is incorrect
  - 1.2.2 The womb is growing too speedily
  - 1.two.3 The womb is growing too slowly
2 Find the position of the infant
- two.1 Feeling the mother'south belly
  - two.1.1 Is the baby vertical?
  - 2.1.2 Is the baby facing the mother's front or her dorsum?
  - 2.1.3 Is the baby head down or bottom down?
- 2.two Listening to the infant'due south heartbeat
  - 2.ii.1 Notice the babe's heartbeat
  - 2.ii.2 Notice the babe's position past listening to the heartbeat
  - 2.2.iii Check how fast the infant's heart beats
- two.3 What to practise if you notice warning signs
  - ii.3.1 Baby is breech
  - two.3.two Babe is sideways
  - 2.3.three Twins

Measure the mother's womb

Salubrious SIGNS

The size of the womb matches the due date.
The womb grows about 2 finger widths every calendar month.

Warning SIGNS

The size of the womb does not lucifer the due date the first time y'all check.
The womb grows more than or less than 2 finger widths every month.

When you measure the womb, yous check to run into where the pinnacle of the womb is. This will show you 3 things:

How many months the adult female is pregnant now.
The probable due date. If y'all were able to figure out the due date from the female parent's concluding monthly bleeding, measuring the womb can assist you see if this due appointment is probably correct. If you were unable to figure out her due engagement from her monthly bleeding, measuring the womb can help you figure out a probable due appointment. This should be washed during the first checkup.
How fast the baby is growing. At each checkup, measure the womb to come across if the baby is growing at a normal rate. If information technology is growing very fast or very slow, there may be a problem.

How to measure out the womb

As the infant grows within the womb, you can feel the womb abound bigger in the mother'south belly. The meridian of the womb moves about 2 finger widths higher each month. At three months, the elevation of the womb is commonly merely above the female parent's pubic bone (where her pubic hair begins). At about 5 months, the summit of the womb is usually right at the mother'south bellybutton. At 8½ to ix months, the pinnacle of the womb is almost upwardly to the female parent's ribs. Babies may driblet lower in the weeks just earlier birth.

To feel the womb, take the female parent lie on her back with some support under her head and knees. Your touch should exist house but gentle.

Detect the top of the womb.

womb
Walk your fingers up the side of the belly	Find the peak of the womb (information technology feels like a hard ball under the skin.)	You tin feel the top by curving into the abdomen

To measure using the finger method

8½-9 months

ix MONTHS!

7½-8 months

6½-7 months

5½-vi months

4½-5 months

3½-four months

2½-iii months

If the acme of the womb is below the bellybutton, measure how many fingers below the bellybutton it is. If the top of the womb is above the navel, mensurate how many fingers above the bellybutton information technology is. Then see how many months significant the woman is now past comparing the number of fingers with this picture (each line is about the width of 2 fingers).

Write down what you find, with a picture or with numbers.
To draw a pic: Brand a circle for the mother's abdomen, a dot for her bellybutton, and a curved line for the top of the womb. Then describe the number of fingers the top of the womb is above or beneath the belly button. For example:

This cartoon means that the top of the womb is 2 fingers below* the omphalus.*	bellybutton top of the womb	This drawing ways that the top of the womb is three fingers above* the bellybutton.*
This woman is nearly 4½ months significant.		This woman is most 6½ months pregnant

To use numbers: Write down the number of fingers yous used to measure out the womb. Put a "+" sign in front of the number if the top of the womb is in a higher place the omphalos. Put a "–" sign in front end of the number if the height of the womb is below the navel. The instance above on the left would be – ii. The 1 on the right would be +iii.

The summit of the womb is four fingers higher up your omphalus — simply where it should be at seven months!

Figure out (or double check) the due date. For instance, if measuring the elevation of the womb tells you that the woman is 7 months pregnant, you tin wait that the infant volition exist born in near two months. If yous have already figured out her due date using her final monthly bleeding, check to run into if the 2 dates are most the same. See information on if the ii dates are not about the same.

To measure using a soft tape mensurate

You tin can use this method when the womb grows as
high as the woman's bellybutton.

Lay a textile or paper measuring tape on the mother's belly, holding the 0 on the tape at the meridian of the pubic bone. Follow the curve of her womb up and hold the tape at the top of her womb.

Write down the number of centimeters from the top of
the pubic bone to the peak of the womb.
Doctors, nurses, and many midwives are taught to count pregnancy by weeks instead of months. They start counting at the first mean solar day of the final monthly haemorrhage, even though the woman probably got pregnant 2 weeks later. Counting this way makes most pregnancies forty weeks long.
During the 2nd half of pregnancy, the womb measures close in centimeters to the number of weeks that the woman has been pregnant. For example, if it has been 24 weeks since her last monthly haemorrhage, the womb will normally measure out 22 to 26 centimeters. The womb should grow about one centimeter every calendar week, or four centimeters every month.

If the size of the womb is not what you expected

If yous are measuring correctly and you do not find the top of the womb where you wait it, it could mean 3 dissimilar things:

The due date you lot got by counting from the last monthly bleeding could be wrong.
The womb could be growing as well fast.
The womb could exist growing too slowly.

The due date you got by counting from the terminal monthly bleeding is wrong

At that place are several reasons why a due date figured from the last monthly bleeding could be wrong. Sometimes women exercise not remember the appointment of their last monthly bleeding correctly. Sometimes a woman misses her bleeding for another reason, then gets pregnant later. This woman could actually be less meaning than y'all thought, so the womb is smaller than you expect. Or sometimes a woman has a niggling bleeding subsequently she gets pregnant. If you lot assumed that was her regular monthly bleeding, this adult female volition be 1 or 2 months more than significant than you lot thought. The womb will be bigger than you expect.

If the due date does not match the size of the womb at the first visit, brand a note. Await and measure the womb again in 2 to 4 weeks. If the womb grows nigh ane to 2 finger widths a calendar month or 1 centimeter a calendar week, the due appointment that you got from feeling the top of the womb is probably right. The due date you got by figuring from the last monthly bleeding was probably incorrect.

Remember: Due dates are non exact. Women often give birth up to 2 or 3 weeks before or later their due date. This is perfectly prophylactic.

The womb is growing too quickly

If the womb grows more ii finger widths a calendar month or more than ane centimeter a week, several different causes are possible:

The mother may have twins.Learn how to tell if there are twins.
The mother may have diabetes.
The female parent may accept too much water in the womb.
The mother may have a molar pregnancy (a tumor instead of a baby).

Likewise much water in the womb
Too much water is non e'er a problem, but information technology can crusade the womb to stretch too much. Then the womb cannot contract enough to push the baby out or to stop the bleeding afterwards the nativity. In rare cases it tin can mean that the baby will take nativity defects. To see if the mother has as well much water, try the thump test:

Accept a helper put a mitt along the heart of the mother's belly.

Put one of your hands on one side of the mother's abdomen. Thump the other side of her belly with your other hand.

If there is besides much water within, you may feel a wave or ripple cross the belly from one side to the other. (The helper's hand keeps the wave from traveling through the mother's skin.) If there is too much water, get medical advice. It may exist safer for the mother to take the birth in a medical center.

Tooth pregnancy (tumor)
Sometimes a adult female gets pregnant, but a tumor grows instead of a baby. This is called a molar pregnancy.

molar
pregnancy

Other signs of a molar pregnancy are: no heartbeat tin can be heard, no baby can exist felt, the mother has bad nausea all through pregnancy, and the mother has spotting of blood and tissue (sometimes shaped like grapes).

If you encounter signs of a molar pregnancy, get medical help as shortly as possible. The tumor can get cancer and kill the adult female — sometimes very fast. A doctor can remove the tumor to relieve the woman.

The womb is growing too slowly

Slow growth tin exist a sign of one of these problems:

The female parent may have high blood pressure. Loftier blood pressure can keep the baby from getting the nutrition information technology needs to grow well. If yous cannot check her blood pressure, become medical assistance.
The female parent may have a poor diet. Find out what the mother has been eating. If she is likewise poor to get plenty good food, endeavour to find a style to help her and her babe. Enough healthy food can save the lives of many mothers and children.
The mother may have as well little h2o in the womb. Sometimes there is less water than usual, and everything is however OK. At other times, as well piddling water tin mean the baby is not normal or will have problems during the labor. If you think the mother has besides fiddling h2o, go medical communication.
The mother may be drinking alcohol, smoking, or using drugs. These tin can cause a baby to be small.
The baby may be dead. Dead babies do not grow, so the womb stops getting bigger. If the mother is 5 months meaning or more, ask if she has felt the infant motility recently. If the baby has not moved for 2 days, something may be wrong.

If the mother is more than 7 months pregnant, or if you heard the baby's heartbeat at an before visit, listen for the heartbeat again. If you cannot discover it, get medical aid. Some medical centers may have equipment to encounter if the infant is notwithstanding alive.

If the baby has died, it is important for the mother to give birth soon. She can give nascency at abode, just she may bleed more other mothers, and is at more risk for infection. If labor does not start in 2 weeks, go to a medical center where she can get medicine to start her labor.

Note: When a mother loses a baby, she needs dear, care, and understanding. Make sure she does not go through labor alone. If she gives birth in the hospital, someone should stay in that location with her during the birth.

Find the position of the babe

HEALTHY SIGNS

In that location is just one babe in the womb.
The babe is head down at the time of birth.

Alarm SIGNS

The babe is breech (feet or bottom down) at the time of birth.
The baby is sideways at the time of birth.
The female parent has twins.

At that place are two methods for finding the baby's position: feeling the female parent's belly, and listening to where the baby'southward heartbeat is strongest. You may demand both to be sure of the position of the baby.

Feeling the mother'due south belly

It may be difficult to find the position of the baby before the 6th or seventh month. Endeavor anyway. What you feel may not make sense now but may make sense the next time you feel for the baby. It will be easier to find the position during the terminal 2 months of pregnancy. The more yous practice feeling the position of a baby, the meliorate you will be at it.

To begin, help the mother lie on her back and give her support nether her knees and head. Make sure she is comfortable.

So feel the mother'southward abdomen. You will be checking for iii things:

Is the baby vertical (up and downwardly)?
Is the baby facing front end or back?
Is the baby head downwardly or bottom downward?

Is the baby vertical?


	vertical: head or bottom down

	sideways: caput and lesser on the sides

Most babies are vertical by the 7th month.

To find out if the baby is vertical, lay ane hand flat on each side of the belly. Press in gently simply firmly, commencement with one hand, and and then with the other.

Check the shape advisedly. Practice the ends of the baby seem to be in the mother's sides? If so, the baby is probably lying sideways. Many babies lie sideways in the first months only most turn head down by 8 months or then. Babies cannot be born through the vagina from the sideways position. A infant that is sideways and cannot exist turned when labor starts must be built-in by cesarean surgery in a hospital. If the baby is sideways after 8 months, get medical help.

It tin exist difficult to feel the position of the baby if the mother has very strong muscles on her belly, or if she has a lot of fat on her belly. If you have a hard time feeling the position, inquire the mother to take a deep breath and let it out slowly, and to relax her body as you experience.

Is the baby facing the mother'due south front or her back?

Next, feel the mother's belly for a large, hard shape (the baby'southward back). If y'all cannot feel the baby's back, feel for a lot of pocket-sized lumps.

A large, hard shape probably ways the baby is facing the mother's back.	If you feel a lot of small-scale lumps instead of a large hard shape, you are probably feeling the artillery and legs. The baby is probably facing the mother's front.
		Come across about when the baby is facing the female parent'due south forepart.


head down	bottom down (breech)

Is the infant caput downwardly or bottom down?

By the concluding month before birth, most babies are lying with their head toward the cervix. This is called a head-downwardly position. The caput-down position is easiest for childbirth.

If a baby is head up, with her bottom toward the birth opening, this is called a breech position.

By the 7th or eighth month, the baby's caput has usually moved down in the mother'south pelvis. Here is how to experience for the babe's head:

I tin feel the top of your pubic bone correct here.

pubic
bone

Find the mother's pubic bone with your fingers. You can feel it but under the skin under the mother'south pubic hair. Ask the mother to have a deep breath in and and so permit information technology out slowly.

As she breathes out, press deeply but above her pubic bone. Be gentle and terminate if you injure her.

If you experience a circular, hard object that yous can move a footling from side to side, information technology is probably the back or side of the baby's head.

If y'all practice not experience anything in the mother's lower abdomen, the baby may be lying sideways.

If the shape is not clearly circular, it may exist the infant'southward face or the baby's bottom.
Or sometimes the infant's bottom is upwards, only the caput is not straight down.

The head may exist bent to the side, or the chin may be up. (These could be signs that the baby will not fit through the mother'southward pelvis at birth.)

If the lower function of the baby is not too deep in the mother's pelvis, effort moving that function of the baby from side to side.

If moving the lower part of the baby makes its whole back motion, and so the babe may be breech. If the back does non move, then the baby may be caput down.

At present feel the elevation of the mother's womb. Does it feel round and hard, like a head? Or is it a different shape — like a bottom, a back, or legs? If the acme of the womb feels more similar a caput than what yous felt in the female parent's lower belly, the baby may exist breech.
Put one manus on the baby'due south back. At the same fourth dimension, with your other hand, push the top end of the baby gently sideways.

If the whole back moves when you move the elevation terminate, the baby is probably in a head-down position.

If the back stays where it is while yous move the upper function of the babe, you may be moving the caput (considering the neck can bend, the dorsum stays in place). If you lot are moving the caput, the infant is breech.

See more data on breech babies during pregnancy. Run across information on when the baby is breech at the time of birth.

When you check the infant'due south position, you might remember yous feel two heads or ii bottoms. The mother may have twins.

Listening to the baby's heartbeat

The babe'south heartbeat gives data about the babe'south position within the female parent and virtually the wellness of the baby. Mind to the heartbeat at each visit starting at 5 months.

By the last 2 months, you tin can often hear the infant's heartbeat in a quiet room by putting your ear on the mother'southward belly. The heartbeat will exist easier to hear if you have a fetoscope or a stethoscope. You can brand a uncomplicated fetoscope from wood, clay, or a hollow tube of bamboo. Or you can buy a fetoscope.


two-ear fetoscope	stethoscope	1-ear fetoscope

The infant'southward heartbeat is quiet and quick. Information technology may sound like a scout ticking under a pillow, merely faster. The baby's heartbeat is about twice every bit fast as a good for you developed heartbeat — usually 120 to 160 beats a minute.

Note: If yous hear a "swishy" sound (shee-oo shee-oo shee-oo), y'all are probably hearing the baby'due south pulse in the cord. Cord sounds tell you how fast the baby's heart is beating, but they do not help you lot find the infant's position.

If the heartbeat sounds slow, you lot are probably hearing the female parent'south pulse instead of the baby. Effort listening to a dissimilar place on her belly.

This is where the heartbeat is loudest:

Find the infant's heartbeat

Recall near which way the infant seems to be lying. Then start listening for the heartbeat nearly the spot where yous remember the baby's heart should be. Y'all may demand to listen in many places before yous find the spot where the heartbeat is the nigh loud and clear.

Find the baby's position past listening to the heartbeat

Is the heartbeat loudest above or below the mother'south umbilicus?

If y'all hear the heartbeat loudest below the mother's bellybutton, the infant is probably head downward.	If yous hear the heartbeat loudest above the female parent's navel, the baby may be breech.
mother's belly button babe'southward heartbeat is loudest here caput down	baby's heartbeat is loudest here mother'south umbilicus breech

Sometimes when the baby is facing the mother's front, the heartbeat is harder to discover because the baby's arms and legs go in the way. Mind near the mother's sides, or directly in the middle of her abdomen to hear the middle.

If you can, proceed a tape of where you heard the baby's
heartbeat by making a simple drawing.

mother's omphalus

baby'southward heartbeat

In this moving picture, the dot in the middle is the mother's navel, and the X shows where the heartbeat was found.

a record of the baby's position

In this record, for example, the babe did not turn caput down until seven months. Fifty-fifty then the baby moved from side to side, so the X moves from the left side to the correct side of the female parent'due south abdomen and so dorsum again. This kind of movement is normal.

Bank check how fast the baby's heart beats

Healthy SIGNSBaby's heartbeat is between 120 and
160 beats a infinitesimal.

WARNING SIGNSA infant whose heartbeat is slower than 120 or faster than 160 beats a minute may exist having trouble. A babe whose heartbeat is slower than 100 or faster than 180 needs medical assistance. Follow these steps to check how fast the babe'south heart beats:

Employ a clock or a sentry with a 2d hand, a digital watch, or a phone with a clock as you lot would for checking the mother's pulse. If you practice not have ane, compare the infant's heartbeat to your own pulse when you lot are resting and calm. (Or make a timer out of bootleg materials.) The baby'southward heartbeat should exist about 2 times as fast equally your pulse.
Count the number of heartbeats in one infinitesimal. If you have trouble watching the clock and counting at the aforementioned time, accept someone tell you when to showtime and stop counting. If the infant's heartbeat seems very slow, feel the mother's pulse in her wrist while you lot listen. If the female parent's pulse and the heartbeat yous hear are the aforementioned, you are hearing the mother's heartbeat by mistake.
Keep a record of where you constitute the heartbeat and how fast it beats.

If the baby's heartbeat is to a higher place 160, wait a few minutes and check information technology once again. Sometimes the heartbeat is faster when the baby moves. If the heartbeat stays above 160 (peculiarly if it is 180 or more) the female parent may have an infection. Check if she has a fast pulse or a fever.

If the baby's heartbeat is tedious, the baby may be in danger. If the heartbeat is betwixt 100 and 120 beats a minute, try moving the baby a little from the outside. The baby may be sleeping. Check if the heartbeat is faster when the baby is awake.

If the heartbeat is slower than 100 beats a minute, go medical help. The baby is in danger! At a infirmary the woman may exist able to get a cesarean surgery to aid the baby to exist built-in early.

Notation: A quiet heartbeat does not mean that the baby is weak. Information technology just means that the baby'south chest or back is far from your ear, or that the female parent's abdomen is difficult to hear through. For example, the wall of the abdomen might exist thick if the mother is fatty.

What to practise if y'all find warning signs

Baby is breech

Breech babies are oftentimes born without any trouble, especially if the mother has had other children and her births were easy. But breech babies are more than probable to get stuck or have other serious issues.

It may be possible to get the infant to turn. Effort these methods:

Lift the mother's hips. This lifts the baby out of the pelvis so he tin turn around and put his head down. The mother lies on her back and puts something soft

(like a pillow) under her hips for 15 minutes, three times every day. It is best to practice this when the babe is moving a lot.
Later lying this mode for 15 minutes, the mother should walk around for nigh 5 minutes. If she thinks she felt the babe plow, she should not elevator her hips like this again until you have checked to see if the babe is still breech.

Ask the mother to go on her knees with her caput resting on the floor. This is another way to move the baby out of the pelvis so that he can turn.
Effort talking to the baby, shining a flashlight, or playing music low on the female parent'southward belly, near her pubic os. The baby may plow to exist closer to the light or sounds.
You may take plant medicines in your area that can help.

Alarm! Only endeavour massage to turn the infant if y'all have been taught how to do it safely and tin get medical help. Trying to turn the baby past pushing on the womb is very dangerous.

Never plow a babe if the mother's waters accept broken or if she has ever had vaginal haemorrhage, loftier blood pressure level, surgery on her womb, or cesarean surgery.

A doctor tin pull the infant out with forceps.

If the babe is not head down when labor starts, information technology is safer for the mother to give birth in a medical center or hospital. Doctors tin can utilise forceps (pulling tools) if the baby gets stuck. Or they can exercise a cesarean surgery.

If a breech baby is going to be built-in at home, it is important for a very skilled midwife to be there (meet data near how to deliver a breech baby).

Remember, there are some times when breech birth is even more dangerous. Practise non try to evangelize a breech at home if:

this is the mother's outset baby.
the mother has had long or difficult births in the past.
the baby is large.
the female parent is weak or has been sick, so she cannot push well.
the midwife is non very skilled or experienced with breech births.

Baby is sideways

If the baby is sideways — not head down or head upward — by 8 months, you can attempt lifting the female parent'southward hips. If the baby does not turn, you should make arrangements for a hospital birth past cesarean surgery.

This babe must be born past cesarean.

Sideways babies cannot fit through the mother'south pelvis to exist born. If you attempt to deliver the baby without surgery, the mother'south womb will pause during labor, and she and the infant volition die without medical care.

If the baby turns head down at whatsoever time — fifty-fifty on the day the female parent goes into labor — it is OK for the mother to requite nascence at domicile. But recollect that turning a sideways infant by hand is just as dangerous equally trying to plough a breech baby.

Twins

It can be very hard to know for certain that a mother is pregnant with twins.

Their tapping is dissimilar. I may accept twins.

Signs of twins:

The womb grows faster or larger than normal.
Y'all can feel ii heads or 2 bottoms when you feel the female parent'due south belly.
You tin hear ii heartbeats. This is not easy, but information technology may be possible in the last few months.

Hither are two ways to try to hear the heartbeats of twins:

Find the heartbeat of ane infant. Have a helper listen for other places where the heartbeat is easy to hear. If she hears a heartbeat, have her listen to one identify while you listen to the other. Each of you can tap the rhythm of the heartbeat with your hand. If the rhythms are the same, you lot may be listening to the same baby. If the rhythms are not exactly the same, you may exist hearing 2 unlike babies.

If y'all practice not have a helper merely yous have a watch with a second hand, a digital lookout man, a telephone, or a homemade timer, effort timing each heartbeat separately. If the heartbeats are non the same, you lot may be hearing 2 different babies.

If y'all recall there might be twins, even if you can find just i heartbeat, get medical help. At a medical centre or hospital, someone can apply a sonogram to meet if in that location are twins.

Considering twin births are often more difficult or dangerous than single births, they are safer in a medical middle. Since twins are more than likely to exist born early on, the female parent should try to have transportation ready at all times later on the 6th month. If the medical center is far away, the mother may wish to move closer in the last months of pregnancy. Exist sure to take a plan for how to get help in an emergency.

If the babies must exist built-in at habitation, ii very skilled midwives should nourish the nascency. Scout for labor starting likewise presently. Encounter more about twin births.

This folio was updated:22 Apr 2021

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Source: https://en.hesperian.org/hhg/A_Book_for_Midwives:Check_the_baby