When does a Baby have a Heartbeat?

When does a Baby have a Heartbeat?
Knowing that you are pregnant is perhaps one of the joyous occasions in your life however, for new expectant mothers, the first question is when does a baby have a heartbeat? Actually, when the normal heartbeat is detected, it is a sign of the overall health of your unborn baby. The unborn infant already has a heartbeat in the early stages of your pregnancy. A fetus that is the embryonic stage can already have a heartbeat. The exact time when the heartbeat is detected may vary depending on how big the embryo.

When does a baby have a heartbeat?

• Misconception: When doctors measure the length of your pregnancy, you may see some confusion about the exact age of your baby. Normally, your doctor may start counting from the 1st day of your last menstrual cycle, however, the exact conception does not happen about 2 weeks after. This means that when the doctor states the week of pregnancy, the exact age of your unborn is 2 weeks lesser.


• Time: Your unborn may already have a heartbeat before the end of 1st month of your pregnancy. This is around week 4 or week 5 of pregnancy. This may also be 2-3 weeks after conception occurred. During this time, the heart had already begun pumping blood with a steady rhythm.


• Ultrasound: For the sixth week of pregnancy, your embryo had already reached four weeks old. Vaginal ultrasound may already sense a fetal heartbeat. When the 7th week is reached, a heartbeat is already detected. By the time you reached seventeenth to twentieth week of pregnancy, your doctor's stethoscope can identify the heartbeat of your baby.


• Normal heartbeat: A normal heartbeat is ninety to one hundred ten beats per minutes and it is an indicator that your baby is healthy.


• Warning: Some unborn baby may not show heartbeat if there is large abdomen or if the miscalculation of the last menstrual period.