Pregnant women urged not to use home heartbeat monitors

Pregnant women should not use home heart monitoring machines and apps, the Royal College of Midwives has urged.

It is too easy to confuse sounds coming from the mother with those from the baby, the RCM warned.

The charity Kicks Count – which encourages women to keep a close check on baby movements – also said the hand-held devices may fail to detect imminent stillbirth. Home dopplers are available to buy for around £30, while phone apps also claim to monitor an unborn baby’s heartbeat.

Kicks Count is calling for home dopplers to be banned. Elizabeth Hutton, chief executive of the charity, said: “Midwives and doctors train for many years to interpret what they hear through a doppler. An untrained pregnant woman does not have the necessary skills.”

Mandy Forrester, head of quality and standards at the RCM, said the best way to monitor a baby’s wellbeing is to get to know its regular pattern of movement.