Normal Fetal Heart Rate – Guide to Heart Disease

Ever wondered about a child’s heart rate when it is there in its mother womb? A child’s heart rate inside the mother is one of the fascinating things to learn as it differs from the heart rates of normal adults! Let us take a close look.

Heart of the matter: Doctors all over the world have studied the heart rate in adults and have diagnosed diseases. Also heart beat rate can correspond to various states of excitation like in the case of the athletes.

Also heart beat rates can be measured for fetuses as well. For this purpose there is a special instrument available today named Cardiotocograph. It is also called as the electronic fetal monitor which can measure the heart beat rate of fetuses quiet accurately.

They measure by making use of contractions and the relaxations inside the mother’s womb. Also using this machine, uterine contractions can also be measured. The child’s heart beat rate measured using this instrument has been at the end of criticism for a long time as well. This is mainly attributed to the fact that child’s heart beat rate was never measured accurately, though the machine claimed exact figures. Also such usage did not go well with many as they thought it was a risk with the pregnancy.

Other facts: There are some good and interesting facts about Fetal Heart Rate as well.

The fact that the fetal heart rate is generally faster than the normal healthy heart rate of adults and infants is quiet amazing. Also the doctors generally say that younger the fetus more is the heart beat rate. This is mainly attributed to the fact that the fetus just starts to grow and during growth processes, the heart beat rate goes up. This is natural though, say many medical experts. Also it is said that during the mid and the last stages of pregnancy, the heart beat can be heard almost everywhere along the uterus.

So it becomes easy for the Cadiotocograph to measure the heart beat rates. Likewise for adults, the heart beat rate corresponds to some of the cardiac problems of the fetus. Though the problems of the fetus cannot be immediately treated, still it can be diagnosed and treated after the pregnancy. Also the fetal heart rate in the first three months of the pregnancy can only be heard using an ultrasound machine. The other interesting fact is the Uterine Souffle which is nothing but the irregular heart beat rates found in different arteries of the fetus’s body. Also there is one more myth that in the past the fetal heart rate was used to determine the gender of the fetus, though there is no solid proof to support this conception.