How do you know if they don’t work if you never used one?

Well, I wasn’t ‘trained’ to use email when I was in school, but since it comes in awfully handy at work, I somehow managed to figure it out. You could LEARN to use a fetoscope, you know, Doc. Learning shouldn’t stop when you get your diploma!

This one doesn’t surprise me at all. Fetoscopes are very low tech and as a general rule, doctors don’t like low tech. I’ve never met an OB that owns one. They do take some skill, to be sure, but they certainly aren’t difficult to use!

The clinic I go to uses doppler, but I wanted to use a fetoscope. My CNM went out of her way to track one down from a midwife friend and brings it to all of my visits. She is wonderful!

That being said, how hard can it be to use one? If you are trained to use a stethoscope, it doesn’t seem like it would take too much more brain power to figure out a fetoscope.

Okay… Then can you use a Dopplar instead?
My insurance will NOT cover an U/S EVERY visit.

Yeah, when I asked the OB for my 2nd pregnancy if they had a fetoscope in the office she looked at me like I was speaking latin for a long moment then tenatively said “I don’t think they make those anymore.” *rolls eyes* I informed her they certainly did.

The first and third sentences of this quote wouldn’t set off any alarm bells, but the second most certainly would.

- I don’t know how to use fetoscopes, therefore they don’t work.

- I don’t know how to assist normal childbirth, therefore it’s dangerous and improper.

- I am not aware that episiotomy increases the risk of fourth-degree tears, therefore it doesn’t.

Etc. It’s a dangerous attitude that anything you don’t understand can’t possibly be worthwhile.

My favorite part of this quote is where the OB says they don’t work. Really, doc? So exactly what is that ticking sound I hear when I put it to my baby’s back? Is it like putting your ear to a conch shell and hearing the ocean?

Here, I brought my own. Don’t know how to use it? I’ll teach you! As a medical professional, you’re always willing to learn, right?

They cost $20. Admittedly, if you’ve never used one, you likely won’t be able to–talking to a midwife friend, she said that they’re not the easiest things and some people can use them with no problem, others can’t get the hang of it. Plus, they don’t even work until past 20 weeks on most moms, so… But still, this sucks.

I’m the first of my midwife’s clients to only want a fetoscope used so she’s had to relearn the skill and she’s still working on it, but she uses it much more with more clients now because of it. She also uses the pinnard which she has more luck with, and even just her ear. These poor doctors can’t survive without their bells, whistles, and machines -_-

Well hell, I’ve used a midwife with 2 of my pregnancies and have never ever been able to hear the heartbeat with a fetoscope, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work!

If you think your education ended when you graduated, and you graduated more than about 8 years ago, I am very frightened and I want out of this room RIGHT NOW.

(You know where I learned about the average useful period of scientific textbooks? High school. This practicioner has no excuse.)

My midwife let my husband try hers and he could hear the heartbeat. She used hers at almost every appointment, except the very early ones and during labor she used a doppler.

I am a midwife and a fetoscope does work beyond 20 weeks. The earliest I have picked up heart tones was 17 weeks. You can also use them under water if you put a ziplock bag on the head or use a Sklar Lef. Most OB’s and nurses I have encountered actually think you are talking about a wooden Pinard horn when you say fetoscope… Too funny! Just as with a fetoscope, Doppler also picks up cord, uterine artery and placental sounds. I find it difficult to tell the difference on a Doppler compared to fetoscope, since fetoscope is the real raw sound and Doppler is digitized.

I also expressed concerned to my doctor regarding the use of a doppler at every visit and she got defensive and asked me what can she do for me then? As if there was no point in me seeing her if I wasn’t going to allow her to do standard procedures. I asked if she could use a fetoscope instead and she told me she wasn’t 90 years old and that it was an ancient device that she doesn’t even know how to use. Then we got into a debate on ultrasound technology and she tried to make me feel loony for feeling the way I feel about them. I know why I feel the way I feel, do I have no choice in what is done to me and my baby or not? She even went as far to tell me her practice was probably not right for me, which she is probably right. How did it work out for you?