Help Needed:) Strange sound on doppler

[KLeigh]

Hello ladies!
So, I listen to baby's heartbeat every week or more since I was 10 weeks (I'm 17 now). It always sounded the same to me. Just a rapid little cute beat. I had a doctor's appointment last week and it sounded just like it always does.
Today I listened to her again and it sounded completely different! It sounded like a gallop. I know the gallop sound is normal BUT it never sounded like that before. Only today. So, naturally, I'm a bit concerned. (This is my first).

My 20 week scan isn't until the end of this month.

Anyone else have this happen to them before?

 

[PotatoChip]

Hello! I read your message and finally decided to actually register an account and post (I've been browsing the forums for a few weeks now). I'm 16 weeks and 4 days, and I've been listening to the heartbeat on the Doppler once a week since week 11.

I had a very similar experience. From weeks 11-15, the heartbeat always sounded like...well, like a little heartbeat. Fast, sure, but I didn't hear any galloping or trains, and I was never really sure what people meant when they described the fetal heartbeat that way. But on my last listen (at 16 weeks), the heartbeat definitely sounded like a gallop! The recorded heart rate was the same, but the sound of it was different than it had been in previous weeks. I assumed it was just because baby is getting bigger, and the heart is getting stronger, but... I'll be curious to read what others have to say as well.

 

[Letsgo]

Aw, how cool to hear baby regularly. I've only heard at the doc appt. At 15 weeks it did sound like a train to me. At 19 weeks I heard the "squishy" (doctor's word, not mine) sound of the placenta, then the baby like a drum! I'm sure it might be a gallop to someone else.

I am guessing there are factors like baby positioning, how much amniotic fluid on a given day, and others affecting your internal acoustics. The first time I heard baby, the heart was directly behind a blood vessel of mine, which made for a weird overlay of sounds.

I think you are on track since these are common sound progressions for pregnancy. Enjoy the sounds of a growing heart with more work to do each day.

 

[MeaganMackenz]

I've read that at a certain point the brain starts to regulate the heart beat, perhaps that's a factor

 

[Leo_Mumma]

I don't have a Doppler but at the midwifes bubba has always sounded like a gallop. Really loud too!

 

[RAFwife]

I don't think you should worry, mine has sounded like that too! If I move the doppler even a teeny bit the sound can totally change so I think it's totally normal

 

[BabyCleo]

I wouldn't worry it sounds pretty normal

 

[JenStar1976]

The gallop is the heartbeat and the whooshing is the placenta.

https://www.fetaldopplerfacts.org/facts/dopplers/fetal-heartbeat-doppler-sounds.php

x

 

[hlynne]

I just read this thread and went to see what my babies heartbeat sounded like and it is also a gallop now. I am only 13+3 and last week when I heard the heartbeat it was like it normally sounds like at the doctors office.

I would really like to know what would change the speed. My BPM are also reading a bit higher than last week.

 

[PotatoChip]

I just read this thread and went to see what my babies heartbeat sounded like and it is also a gallop now. I am only 13+3 and last week when I heard the heartbeat it was like it normally sounds like at the doctors office.

I would really like to know what would change the speed. My BPM are also reading a bit higher than last week.

My understanding is that it's normal for the baby's heartbeat to change a bit--both over time, and in response to stimuli (just as our heartbeat gets faster when we move around and slower when we're sleeping).

The gallop is the heartbeat and the whooshing is the placenta.


x

Just to clarify, at least for me, the earlier non-gallop sound was definitely the heartbeat and not the placenta. Like you said, the placenta sound is whooshing and pulses at a slower rate than the heartbeat. What I was hearing before was definitely the heartbeat (as confirmed by my OB and a midwife friend who taught me to use the Doppler). I'm not clarifying this to be obnoxious, but just to reiterate to the OP that it my case, it was definitely the heartbeat that changed from a beat sound to a gallop sound when I hit 16 weeks.