Ectopic Fetal Heartbeat..

[+tivethoughts]

Had my 24 week MW app. yesterday. All went fine and she gave me mat b1 form and also my HIP grant form (she post-dated it for me ) anyway, when we listened to the heartbeat it sounded different to how it usually does (has always been normal at all my other MW & consultant apps). I sounded like it was skipping a beat. She told me it sounds like an ectopic fetal heatbeat and told me to go up to the hospital.

After 2 1/2 hrs up there I saw a doctor who confirmed it was ectopic beats and has scheduled me in for a scan this week. He has told me not to worry as these things generally sort themselves out - but left us with no information. From what I can gather it is irregular beats, and usually lead to nothing.

Just wondering whether anyone here has had any experience of this?

Thanks ladies xx

 

[marnie79]

hi hun, sorry but i havent a clue, but didnt want to read n run, have u tried googeling it ? xx

 

[Emmea12uk]

No idea - I hope it turns ok.

 

[lulu35]

i had this with my 1st daughter, she was born with a slight heart murmmer but it corrected itself by the time she was 6 weeks old x

 

[blinkybaby]

Hey, my baby has this too - it usually corrects itself before birth but my baby's heart beat is still doing it with only 2 weeks to go so the MW's at hospital have told me the baby will need to be seen by a pediatrician after birth to be monitored for 24-48 hours to check everything is OK as there's a small risk of tachycardia after birth.

I'm just trying to find out now if I will have to be monitored through the whole birth as I wanted an active or water birth ideally.

Here's hoping your baby's HB rectifies itself before birth hun. My partner (baby's daddy) has ectopic beats as well and it causes him no problems at all in his adult life so 99% of the time I think it's a case of keeping on the safe side.

You can't help but worry though can you! Know the feeling! If you want to chat about it feel free to PM me. xxx

 

[+tivethoughts]

Thanks for all the replies. I am booked in for a scan on 13th Jan so will know more then. I will post to keep this updated.

Blinkybaby, thank you for your well wishes - I hope everything is ok with your bubs too, with any luck it will correct itself for both of us. Good luck - not long to go for you xx

 

[+tivethoughts]

*Bit of an update*

Ok, so I went to see my BP consultant last friday and he was shocked the hospital had not given me an appointment for the scan until 13th Jan. He also wasnt sure why they had booked me in to that hospital and not St. Georges where they have cardio specialists who'd be able to determine whether there is a problem or not.

Well, he referred me and I went and got scanned yesterday.

Scan went as well as it could - structure of the heart is perfect and as it should be. Ectopic beats are still being heard/picked up on the scan. Consultant advised that it is like "baby flicking a light switch twice quickly and light only coming on once" It kinda makes sense - I dont fully understand it.

It's basically where the heart is beating really quickly and it is skipping a beat. HR was in the high 170's. She advised me that the worry is when/if the baby's HR speeds up to near 200 as bubs will get tired and HR will drop - if that happens, they may need to get him out....(This apparently probably wont happen!)

Plan of action for now is:

MW next week as scheduled but needs to concentrate on HR to ensure it's not sped up.
BP consultant week after - as above
MW week after that purely to check the HR
14th Feb back to St. Georges for another Echocardiogram to see what the story is - the situation will/should be much clearer then.

I will keep this post updated incase it helps someone else.

 

[Blondie007]

Good luck with it all xx

 

[+tivethoughts]

Thank you xx

 

[Emmea12uk]

Good luck with it all. I hope it sorts itself out.

 

[blinkybaby]

Good luck with it hun, I hope it all turns out fine for you and baby. xxx

 

[Reenie]

Hi +tivethoughts,

Im new to this forum and only came on because i'm facing the same issue as you - i was sent to the hospital straight from my MW appt. and have just come back from the hospital and ive been referred to st gerorges....

Very very little information given, suppose they dont want to worry me, but just wanted to know, you said u need to ensure that the heartbeat doesn't increase - did they say how to do that? is it even in your control?

Also, did they say what caused it? everything was fine up to now and im 28weeks....

 

[Reenie]

Hi +tivethoughts,

Im new to this forum and only came on because i'm facing the same issue as you - i was sent to the hospital straight from my MW appt. and have just come back from the hospital and ive been referred to st gerorges....

Very very little information given, suppose they dont want to worry me, but just wanted to know, you said u need to ensure that the heartbeat doesn't increase - did they say how to do that? is it even in your control?

Also, did they say what caused it? everything was fine up to now and im 28weeks....

 

[+tivethoughts]

Just wanted to give an update - went to my Blood Pressure consultant appt on Fri - he listened to baby and all was FINE AND NORMAL! I still went to DAU as planned as they want a trace done every week to keep an eye on it. But yay! All good at the moment!

Reenie, The increase in the HB is something which cannot be controlled. The consultant I saw described it like bubs switching a light switch - (bear with me on this one!!) Bubs flicks switch twice quickly, but light illuminates only once. which is what causes the beats to go like boomboom, boom........boomboom, boom..........boomboom, boom........ instead of the normal boomboom, boomboom, boomboom, boomboom. Its something to do with parts of the heart developing at slightly slower rate that the others. (Sorry, not a great explaination - but that's what I got from her and it definitely makes sense when explained!)

I was worrying all the time (only natural!) but took great comfort from those who have experienced this and had positive outcomes. If you have any other Q's or just wanna talk feel free to PM me - ST Georges were brilliant by the way.

Which hospital were you referred from? xx

 

[Lea8198]

Good luck. I am glad they are looking after you x

 

[Emmea12uk]

So glad everything is fine x

 

[jumpin]

My daughters ectopic heartbeat was picked up by midwife at 24 weeks, it had been fine before this. I was told that it is a resut of 2 parts of the heart developing at slightly different stages and they will catch up to each other.
I was seen by a cardiology specialist (at 27 weeks) who monitored and said that the heart was formed correctly and that it was therefore nothing to worry about as it would rectify itself either before or at birth. I was monitored weekly to ensure that the heart rate was not consistently too fast or too slow - it was okay for it to speed up or slow down but not to stay either way.
My DD's was regularly irregular in that it held the same pattern. it beat twice (boomboom) added in an extra beat (boom) and then paused to compensate - boomboom boom pause boomboom boom pause. It held this pattern until late into the pregnancy and then gradually improved. By 40 weeks it was nearly running a normal pattern with just an occasional extra beat / pause. After birth it was checked with ECG and was fine, checked again at 6 week check and was still fine.
Although people said not to worry it was hard not to - however I received excellent care and once I understood what was happening I managed to relax about it.

 

[+tivethoughts]

UPDATE!

All is good and back to normal! I went back to St.Georges on 14th feb for a follow up scan and they confirmed bubs heartbeat has gone back to normal. I am still being monitored by CTG every week until delivery, but that's fine by me - even though I'm sick of the sight of hospitals lol.

I'm now 32+4 and the ectopic beats were found at 24 weeks, so it only really took about 5 or so weeks to sort itself out.

Thank you all for your kind words

Siobhan xx