There’s nothing quite as sweet during pregnancy as the sound of your baby’s heartbeat as heard through a baby heart monitor. These devices are commonly used by doctors and midwives during your regular prenatal visits to measure the strength and frequency of your baby’s heartbeat. For you, hearing your baby’s heart can make your baby feel more real and help you start bonding.

Now it’s possible to listen to your unborn baby at home whenever you want. You can buy or rent a baby heart monitor for use at home during your pregnancy. As early as ten weeks of gestation, a baby heart monitor can pick up the sounds of your baby’s growing heart for you and your family to listen to. This can be a great time for older siblings to connect with the coming baby.

Your baby heart monitor will use doppler technology. Like ultrasound, doppler baby monitors send sound waves through your body and then measure the change in frequency of the waves that bounce back. The FDA has approved the use of baby heart monitors at home, so you don’t need to worry about any harm to your baby or yourself from frequent heart monitoring.

A baby heart monitor can be especially useful in the last weeks of pregnancy when baby’s kicks become less frequent because of less room in the womb. The option to hear baby’s heart when movements aren’t occurring as often helps parents know that their baby is thriving. Anything that lowers the anxiety of a mother in late pregnancy is a good thing.