Heart baby's Heartbeat - Normal?

[Tiggy26]

Hello,

We bought a doppler in my first pregnancy and kept it to use for this pregnancy. We heard the heartbeat last night for the first time but it seems high? It was coming up as 173-175. In my first pregnancy my son had a heartbeat of 153.

I cant remember what the saying is - is it, 160 below is a boy and 160 above is a girl??????

xx

 

[donna27]

I may be wrong but I thought that they could only tell this when you are in labour. The study for this during pregnancy was done in the 1980's I think and many done since have proved inconclusive. But hey that all sounds really serious and as long as it's just for fun I don't suppose it matters. Sadly I have no idea what each sex's FHR would be.

 

[*Kate*]

I was once told a higher hearrate indicated a boy - but I have no idea how true it is hun x

 

[bizzygirl101]

Hi

I know that the heartbeat is faster the earlier in pregnancy you monitor it - could it be that? And yes i think they say the faster heartbeats are boys, it was right with me!

 

[Kittykins]

some things I've read say over 140 is a boy, others that over 140 is a girl. So I wouldn't read too much into it! A large study found no scientific correlation between gender/heartrate.

Btw - 140 is average, though it tends to slow down with time. The majority range is usually around 110-170, narrowing to 120-160 by around 12w, according to most sources (including my MW's guidance notes!!!). However, there are always healthy exceptions to every rule and if it's somewhere between 90-190 in the early days, that is perfectly ok. They'd start worrying a bit if it was as low as 90 or as high as 190 after 12w though, and would run further checks. Also the hb will become more obvious and regular as the baby grows, and you'll be able to detect a difference between active (higher) adn sleeping (lower).

So basically, you might think it was a boy whilst it was asleep and then find the hb again whilst it was awake and think it was a girl - or the other way round, depending on which book you're reading.

I wouldn't be buying pink or blue based on the hb!

ETA - so yes, your baby's hr is quite high - but definitely not problematically so, just at the higher end of the range.