Anyone who is pregnant wants to see the baby’s heart beating as quickly as possible. This can be done by means of an ultrasound at six weeks of pregnancy and by means of a doptone at twelve weeks of pregnancy. Yet the heart starts beating earlier than six weeks of pregnancy. The heart is still very primitive in the beginning.
Development of the heart
The body is made up of cells, many cells. A fertilized egg is one cell, which quickly divides into two, four, eight, etc. A cell can move, grow and divide. Some cells grow into heart cells, others into brain cells or other types of cells. A number of the same cells together form one organ. The hereditary material of every cell consists of DNA. The DNA sends molecular signals. This ensures that a cell does or does not produce certain proteins. The proteins determine what a cell can or cannot do.A heart cell only produces proteins that ensure that a heart cell can produce its own electrical signal and contract.On the 19th day, the endocardial tubes, a kind of blood vessels, form. There are no heart chambers yet. Three weeks after fertilization, special blood cells fuse with each other to form the first heart tube. From this day on, these blood cells will also contract. Under the influence of calcium, sodium, potassium and other influences, the first cell receives the signal to contract. The other cells soon follow. It seems as if they encourage each other to do this.The heart cells contract due to an electrical signal sent from the sinus node to the heart cells. The influence of the brain is completely outside of this. The first functioning of the heart and blood vessels has arisen. In the beginning, this system is very similar to the cardiovascular system of a fish. Only later does this clearly develop into that of a human being.During pregnancy, blood flow does not flow through the lungs but through the baby’s navel. Only shortly after birth does the blood circulation change permanently.Until just after birth, there is a hole between the atria of the heart. This causes oxygen-rich blood to flow from the left to the right atrium . As a result, the lungs receive little blood: they do not need it yet. After birth, the partition between the atria closes. Circulation now takes place via the lungs.
When can the heart be seen on an ultrasound?
Every pregnant woman looks forward to seeing the baby’s heart beating. An ultrasound can be used to see the heart beating at six weeks of pregnancy (four weeks after fertilization). With an internal ultrasound it is sometimes possible to see the heart beating at 5.5 weeks.If there is no beating heart visible, this does not necessarily mean that something serious is going on. In some cases there is a miscalculation and the woman is pregnant for less time than she had thought. Sometimes it is much more difficult to visualize the heart due to certain circumstances. It is often decided to wait a few days and then do another ultrasound. In most cases the beating heart is now clearly visible.
Hear your heart with the doptone
A doptone works with sound vibrations. It captures the vibrations of the heart and converts them into a sound signal. This is slightly different from an ultrasound: here the vibrations are converted into images.At approximately twelve weeks of pregnancy, the sound of the heart is clearly audible with a doptone. In the beginning this sound will be weak, but as the pregnancy progresses the sound will become stronger. The midwife sometimes has to look carefully for the right signal. Sometimes the mother’s heartbeat is captured and displayed via the doptone. However, the midwife will easily recognize this: a baby’s heart rate is many times faster than that of the mother.At approximately 26 weeks of pregnancy, the midwife no longer needs doptone: she can also listen to the heartbeat using a horn. The heartbeat can also sometimes be clearly heard with the help of a toilet roll.
The heart is not beating
If the midwife cannot find a beating heart with the doptone, she will continue the search with an ultrasound. If the ultrasound does not detect a beating heart, she will refer the pregnant woman to the gynecologist. This will examine the woman further. In some cases the gynecologist will be able to find the beating heart. In other cases, there is something wrong with the baby.In most cases, a pregnant woman is not referred to the gynecologist if the heart is not beating if the pregnancy is less than twelve weeks. During this period things go wrong more often, and a miscarriage occurs naturally. The woman will only be referred in case of medical exceptions. In most cases, pregnancies from twelve weeks are forwarded.In many cases, the heart not beating has nothing to do with the heart itself , but with another abnormality in the baby. The body then decides to terminate the pregnancy. The heart cells no longer receive a signal to contract and stand still. In some cases, the heart cells were not strong enough to contract, or the structure of the heart was not good. Terminating the pregnancy is a decision that the body makes itself. This is often a good choice by the body: a baby that would be born anyway would have little or no chance of survival or would have to suffer from severe clinging.In other cases, an abnormality of the uterus or an ectopic pregnancy can also cause the heart cells to stop contracting. In these cases, the pregnancy would not be able to progress normally , which would endanger the baby’s development.