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Anyone's baby have an irregular heartbeat in utero?

belizeitornotbelizeitornot
in High-Risk Pregnancy

Yesterday during my weekly BPP the tech noticed the baby had developed an irregular heart rate since the last appt. I was sent over to MFM and they did a longer sono to look at the heart and listen and they determined that it doesn't appear to be anything structural, but she def. has some extra atrial contractions going on that aren't consistently timed (sometimes every 4th beat, sometimes longer).

I'm going back tomorrow for a follow up, and for now we have avoided needing to see the cardiologist, but I'm still nervous. I'm glad there is nothing seriously structurally wrong but the fact hat this just developed suddenly and there is no apparent cause (until they can do an EKG after she's born) worries me that things could take a turn for the worst at any moment. She is still moving around and everything else is fine so I'm trying to take comfort in that....

Anyone have experience with this that can weigh in?

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Re: Anyone's baby have an irregular heartbeat in utero?

  • stephcphillipsstephcphillips

    Ugh - Bump just lost my post Sad 

    At our anatomy scan I noticed that our LO's heart looked like it was skipping a beat.  The tech didnt say anything about the heart except all 4 chambers were there and the aorta looked good.  I didnt bring it up to her.  I  met with my OB afterwards and she had a hard time getting the rate with the doppler.  It has been that way all 3 times they have tried - just takes some time to get the LO to cooperate. 

    After about 5 minutes she looked at me and said it almost sounds as if it is skipping a beat.  I told her what I saw on the monitor.  We have been referred to MFM for a fetal echocardiogram 12/6.  She called it PAC(premature atrial contraction).  She didnt seem worried, only wanting to be cautious that they were not missing something. 

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  • ElatedMom2BElatedMom2B member
    That happened to DD when I was just about as far along as you.  I had to go to the peri once a week for an ultrasound to look a the heart and then I would have to sit on the heart monitor for a half hour to listen and have a print out o fthe erregular heart beat.  My doctor tod me that it is common to have an irregular heartbeat at this stage as on of the atrial flaps didn't close all the way when the heart flowed through the chambers.  This didn't allow for a heart "beat".  So, they just monitored and said that if it continued up until birth hen they would have a peds cardio present when teh baby was born to check her out.  I believe it was about the 38th week or so it totally resolved itself.  It is very common.  I wouldn't worry to much about it until you get the docs to look at it again the next time. Nice thing about it was for the last five/six weeks I got to see my little girl once a week on the u/s - I have so many u/s pictures of her!
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  • azneyz16azneyz16
    Same thing happened to me - doc found irregular heartbeat at week 24 and referred me to high risk practice.  I've been going there ever since.  The high risk ob's weren't concerned about PACs, but then my baby started developing episodes of tachycardia where the heart rate skyrockets for short amounts of time.  Then I had to go in 3x a week to keep an eye on it. At 38 weeks 3 days today and all of the baby's heart issues seem to have resolved themselves (knock on wood).  Don't worry too much about PACs! Good that they're monitoring you closely. My docs all told me (including the ped. cardiologist) that those irregularities almost always disappear by birth. Good luck!
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