NHS twins

How far along are you? I don't think you hear the heartbeat until later in the pregnancy with the NHS. I can't remember when though.

Sounds v weird to me, with my singleton pregnancy they always listened to the heartbeat?

Oh right, I remember seeing the flickers and asking if I could hear them and they turned the sound on.

I could always hear the heartbeat/cord flow in ultrasounds but they did turn the sound on not sure if they just haven’t done that? My midwife never used a Doppler either as they weren’t certain it would be accurate!

After a scan & consultant appointment I wasn’t happy with something. So I called the hospital department & someone had a chat with my ultrasound technician to check something then called me back to reassure. Maybe you could do the same? They will want to ease your worries if they can! You could also take yourself in for monitoring as they can check heartbeats & paper work then although they won’t do a scan xx

We had MCDA twins and at this point we’re having scans every week at Kings. But every scan we were hearing their heartbeat but may have been down to they type of twins and risks involved 🤷🏻‍♀️
Midwives did say the same tho in that they never check heartbeats as never guaranteed if they are getting the same one twice xx

I had dcda twins and they always would look for the flicker and I never got to listen to their heartbeats I always used to assume they just want to get the appointment over and done with. It used to scare me as I wanted to hear it for reassurance but months down the line my midwife would use a doppler. I had 2 private scans during my pregnancy and they would listen to the heartbeat but nhs scans never x

Listening in to twins with a Doppler isn’t advised as it’s easy to provide false reassurance thinking you’ve heard 2 babies when you’ve actually picked up echos of the first baby when you think you have the second so it very much depends on the midwife’s skill level as it is not an essential observation it isn’t something they have to offer. I happily listen in to twins for my twin patients but I have a lot of experience behind me whereas my colleagues who are qualified more recently do not feel confident so wouldn’t offer if they saw a twin patient

As for the scan I find it odd that they haven’t let you hear from 20 weeks. They don’t do it before 20 but everywhere I’ve worked and when I had my own scans they always played the heart beats.

Midwives are independent practitioners so they can make clinical judgments off guidance if they can justify the things they’ve done.

Sonographers do not have this authority under their scope of practice. They cannot deviate from guidance or policy in the way midwives can

I have twins and heard the heartbeats at the dating scan. Had an impromptu scan (they wanted guinea pigs for student training) at 14+5 weeks and heard them again and was allowed to take a video too. Currently 15+2