Low Fetal Heartbeat

[CAnn954]

Hi,

This is my 3rd pregnancy where all of my previous pregnancies resulted in miscarriage. Yesterday I had an internal ultrasound where they were able to see a heartbeat, which had never happened in the past. The tech had a difficult time hearing the heartbeat, and it took her a long time to record it.
This afternoon my Dr. called and said I need another ultrasound because the heart rate was only 80bpp. I did some research and have found that a low heart rate is indicative of a miscarriage. My question is; Should I be preparing myself for an inevitable miscarriage? One additional fact that leads me to believe that this is happening is that when they measured for a gestational age the tech told me I was 5w6d when I should be closer to 7 weeks.

[missyg477]

You have ovulated later that you thought, and that might explain the size difference.  When will you have another sono.  Maybe the heart rate will pick up by then.  Good luck to you.

[CAnn954]

Thanks for the encouraging words :-)
I'm heading back to the hospital tomorrow for a second ultrasound. I'm hoping that they will find that they picked up my heartbeat the first time around since they were having such a hard time recording it to began with.
Keeping my fingers crossed!

[ZoesMommy]

You could have ovulated late, which would explain why you'd only measure 5w6d. Also, the baby could just be smaller than a "normal" baby size. A low heartbeat is NOT always indicative of a miscarriage. At 6w with my daughter, she had a low heartbeat, but it had picked up by the time I went back at 8 weeks. Her heartbeat had been around 90bpm and it picked up to 161 by 8 weeks. She's a happy, healthy 11 month old now.