Doctors have warned expectant mothers not to rely on smart phone apps to assure them that their unborn baby’s heartbeat is normal.
Dr Lucy Bowyer, Acting Head of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Sydney’s Royal Hospital for Women, said the hospital had cared for two women who were using a similar app to monitor their baby’s heartbeat but who but had gone on to experienced stillbirth.
There are many such apps on the market available for download but Dr Bowyer believes there is no clinical evidence that these tools could monitor a baby’s heartbeat reliably.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Dr Bowyer explained:
“Women with reduced foetal movements must ring for medical advice, not rely upon phone apps which cannot listen to the foetal heart with any clinical success. Even if you could hear the heartbeat, if you are not clinically trained you don’t know what you listening out for. It’s such a tragedy to deliver a stillborn baby when urgent medical assessment and intervention may have prevented that loss”
Dr Bowyer says that monitoring the baby’s heartbeat become a near obsession for many pregnant women who also fear becoming a burden on hospital staff :
“Many women don’t want to waste our time, but if you are concerned about your baby’s movements, we would rather hear from you than take the risk of stillbirth.We would rather you make a fuss so just ring the doctor, the midwife of the delivery suite, there is always someone to talk to”
