At my last shopping trip at Motherhood Maternity, I noticed that they had a Prenatal Heart Monitor for sale. Similar to the Doppler monitor that my OB/GYN uses to listen for the baby’s heartbeat, this is the consumer-grade device. It also has the option to record the sounds of the baby’s heartbeat, hiccups, and kicks. The deluxe model also allowed you to speak/sing/play music to the baby and could be used as a white noise/heartbeat sound machine for when the baby is born.

I’m wondering if anyone has purchased such a device and how effective it really is. I would hate to have another incident like at my doctor’s office, when she had a hard time finding the baby’s heartbeat — not because of any problems with the pregnancy, but because the Doppler monitor was malfunctioning. It would give me a heart attack if I brought home the machine and couldn’t hear anything. Besides that, is it worth the investment? Will it be one of those things that is neat in the beginning, but ends up being a useless gadget that collects dust in a closet soon after?