skipped heartbeats

[mamafour]

I am 37 years old, and 4 1/2 months pregnant with my 5th child. I am in good shape, have had no pregnancy complications in the past (even w/ a twin pregnancy). However with this pregnancy I have been experiencing what I feel are heart palpitations and/or skipped beats. I am mildly anxious, but not on any medications what so ever. I have seen my general practitioner after my first sensation, and he pretty much said, he didnt see anything to worry about. If it happened again maybe they'd give a 24 hour monitor. The thing w/ that is, I don't feel these everyday, I can sometimes go a week feeling nothing, then a morning like this I felt them probably 4 times. I have read it sometimes can be gas sensations but when I felt it coming on, I checked my pulse and sure enough, I missed a beat. I did have a EKG when I was in my early 20's b/c a nurse picked up what she thought was a murmur, it turned out to be nothing. Should I be overly concerned??

[mamafour]

Thank you so much! I will rest easy, I'll mention it at my next prenatal visit, but I won't work myself up over it!! Have a nice holiday season!

[ireneo]

Most everyone has an occasional skipped beat (which in reality is a premature beat with a little pause). Many don't even feel them, some people do. But since it seems your heart is normal in all other ways, the occasional blip is not dangerous. It could be the hormonal changes right now. If you ask the people on the heart rhythm board they'll tell you how their PVC's (premature beats) increase during certain times of the month and it's very irritating. And to put this in perspective, some folks have tens of thousands of these every day. I average 1-5 per minute all day, most every day. And my heart is fine. It's just one of those things.

irene