My friend Hollie is a member of the Ebates sales team, a proud southern belle, and most importantly, a newly expectant mother! She, like all new parents, wants nothing more than to keep her baby happy and healthy (while attempting to maintain her own sanity, of course).
As a new mom, Hollie finds herself bombarded with baby buzz left and right: bathroom-stall baby harnesses, Zaky pillows, musical pacifiers...does it ever end? Let's help Hollie figure out what she'll really need, and what's better left on the store shelf!
On Wednesdays, I'll be featuring Hollie's questions on all things baby: maternity gear, household items, exercise tips and more. A group of our staffers with young children will answer her questions, and of course we'd love to hear feedback from YOU!
Hollie's Question of the Week:
I keep reading about prenatal listeners, the small recorders that allow you to listen to your baby's heartbeat, kicking and even hiccups! It sounds pretty cool, but I'm not sure if it's worth the the $19.99. Would headphones do the same thing?
Larry (Engineer): Never used them. How about a stethoscope?
Wilma (Engineer): Yes, I used one of those prenatal
heartbeat listeners and a headphone for my 2nd pregnancy. I even used a
Dr.'s stethoscope to listen to the baby's heartbeat. Don't bother
buying it as it's a waste of money. You can hardly hear anything and you
really need to be in quiet place, no distractions, etc. to hear
anything. If you want really want to record your baby's heartbeat, bring
a tape recorder to every prenatal appt.
Anna (Product Manager): Yes, we bought one (suckers!) and for us, it was a waste of money. I had friends who it worked for (same exact listener), but we couldn't really distinguish the baby's sounds from mom's indigestion! It would probably have been more effective later in the pregnancy, but by that time, we had given up using it!
Sam (Design Director):We didn't use a listener (again, I didn't even know they existed). It WAS a lot of fun to hear the heartbeat during visits to the doctor though.
Cath (V.P. of Finance): I did and I love mine, especially with the first pregnancy when everything was so new. Listening to my baby's heartbeat whenever I wanted to was super important to me and my husband! :-) Headphones would not work!
Admit it. You're curious. Why not give a prenatal listener a try? They range in price from $19.99 at Target to about $29.95 at BabyWise.com!
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Hey Hollie! I tried one of those listeners and I never could hear the babies heartbeat, which then led me to worry, so I say pass. Good Luck!
Hi Hollie! Kristen forwarded this to me. I tried one of these, and I couldn't really hear anything. I would say to pass on this, and then when you go to the doctor's office, you can have that to look forward to : ) Hope you are feeling well!!