Most researchers and doctors define normal fetal heart rate as between 110 to 160 beats per minute (bpm), with some experts using narrower parameters, such as 110 to 150 bpm or 120 to 160 bpm.
How Your Baby’s Heart Rate Changes
Though there are many words to describe the moment that you first hear your baby’s heartbeat, most people use words like galloping to describe how the heart rate sounds. While the heart rate in pregnancy is faster than an adult’s heart rate, the truth is that a normal fetal heart rate changes during the stages of pregnancy and throughout the day.
Throughout Pregnancy
At about five weeks gestation, your baby’s heart begins to beat. At this point, a normal fetal heart rate is about the same as the gestational parents’: 80 to 85 beats per minute (bpm). From this point, it will increase its rate by about three beats per minute per day during that first month. This is so exact that your doctor or midwife can actually use heart rate to help pinpoint the gestational age of your baby via ultrasound. By the beginning of the ninth week of pregnancy, the normal fetal heart rate is an average of 170 bpm, up from about 110 at 5 weeks gestation. After 13 weeks gestation, it begins a rapid deceleration to the normal fetal heart rate for mid-pregnancy, between 110 to 160 bpm. There is also a slowing of the normal fetal heart rate in the last 10 weeks of pregnancy, though the normal fetal heart rate is still about twice the normal adult’s resting heart rate. Interestingly, research shows that toward the end of pregnancy fetal heart rate differs between male and female babies, with female fetuses having noticeably higher heart rates. If you are having a non-stress test at the end of pregnancy, you can hear the fluctuations. The heart rate goes up and down within a certain framework of normal. Imagine what it would sound like if you had ongoing audio of your heart rate as you were starting to exercise and then cooling down. Your heart rate would go up and down as well. Your baby has the same reaction.
Monitoring Baby’s Heart Rate
Some parents may wonder if monitoring the baby’s heart rate from day to day while at home is a smart idea. But the practice has pros and cons.
At Home
Some parents feel better when they can monitor the baby’s heartbeat from home. This use of a doppler in the home is not recommended for most people. The concerns are multi-pronged and include overuse of the doppler listening device and/or misinterpretation, positively or negatively. There are other ways to listen to your baby’s heartbeat. Talk to your doctor or midwife about how to best monitor your baby if you are concerned.
In Labor
Fetal monitoring in labor can be done by intermittent auscultation, which means listening with a stethoscope, fetoscope, or handheld doppler at various points in labor. Your baby may be monitored intermittently with an external monitoring belt. Or your practitioner may recommend continuous monitoring, either external or internal. Each of these practices has benefits and tradeoffs for you and your baby, depending on your labor and your medical history. Talk to your doctor or midwife for advice on which is best for you. In general, low-risk pregnancies will need less monitoring in labor. However, during the process of labor, your baby may show signs of needing more intense monitoring or your labor or interventions may require increased monitoring to help boost the safety of procedures. For example, even if you are low risk, if you have a Pitocin induction of labor you will likely have continuous external monitoring.
A Word From Verywell
You may worry when you first hear the heartbeat that something is wrong because it sounds so different than what you may be used to hearing. Rest assured, it is most likely normal. Ask your practitioner for advice if you are concerned. There was an error. Please try again.
