normal heartbeat per minute during pregnancy

Your heart function won’t return to pre-pregnancy levels until about six weeks after you deliver. Your expanding uterus could slow the flow of blood from your legs and pelvic area back to your heart.ĭuring your second trimester, your blood pressure may also drop slightly due to hormonal shifts and the fact that more blood is flowing to your uterus.Your resting may heart rate will increase from about 70 beats per minute to up to 90 beats per minute.Your cardiac output, or the amount of blood your heart pumps each minute, will jump 30 to 50 percent.“Pregnancy is a natural stress test…the cardiovascular system must undergo major changes to its structure to sustain tremendous increases in blood volume,” writes James Martin, MD, chair of the Pregnancy and Heart Disease Task Force, in a May 2019 ACOG statement.Īs the amount of blood in your body increases, you can anticipate these additional changes: Other experts feel strongly about this too. “The heart has to give blood to a growing uterus, placenta, and fetus, as well as enlarging breasts or other areas of the body that change during pregnancy.” “During pregnancy a woman’s blood volume increases up to about 50 percent so her heart has to work that much harder to pump,” explains Jade Pizarro, MD, an OBGYN at Orange Park Medical Center in Jacksonville, Florida. When you’re expecting, your heart sends more blood to your uterus so that your fetus receives the oxygen and nutrients needed for proper growth and development.

Understanding how pregnancy affects your heart can help you figure out what’s normal, what isn’t and what you can do to protect your health. In fact, heart disease is now the leading cause of death in pregnancy and the postpartum period, according to a May 2019 guidance released by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Some heart-related changes or conditions can be serious, however. While you should notify your doctor if you have these symptoms, they are usually nothing to worry about. You could also feel a “fluttering” sensation in your chest. These changes aren’t as obvious as your growing belly, but you may notice that you’re more tired or short of breath. During pregnancy, it works harder to pump even more blood and support your developing baby. Sometimes the baby’s heartbeat will not be clearly audible until seven or even eight weeks.Each day your heart beats about 100,000 times and pumps roughly 2,000 gallons of blood throughout your body. At that early phase, your baby’s heart rate should be about 100 beats per minute. In other words, about six weeks is the earliest stage where you can hear your tiny baby’s heartbeat with an ultrasound. In addition to checking for your baby’s heartbeat, your obstetrician may use the sonogram to confirm pregnancy at six weeks determine fetal age and size rule out problems with your pregnancy or check for twins.Īs a general rule, 5.5 to 6.5 weeks is the earliest time that your doctor will be able to detect a fetal heart beat by trans-vaginal ultrasound. The obstetrical ultrasound, or sonogram, is the most accurate and commonly used method that your physician will use to check your baby’s heartbeat. With the fetoscope, the OB/GYN should be able to hear your baby’s heartbeat at about 20 weeks. Your doctor will press the 'bell' side of the fetoscope firmly onto your abdomen and attempt to locate your baby’s back-which is the ideal site to hear your baby’s heartbeat. It's noninvasive and allows your doctor to monitor your baby’s heart, causing no harm to your baby.

It is basically a reconfigured stethoscope that works by amplifying the sound of your baby's heartbeat. A fetoscope is an instrument your OB may use to listen to your baby’s heartbeat.

Normal heartbeat per minute during pregnancy