The US Federal Drug Administration released a new update to its policies warning against the purchase of over-the-counter sale fetal heartbeat monitors which rely on Doppler ultrasound technology to listen to a baby’s heart.

Apparently, it has become trendy for parents-to-be to pay commercial companies to conduct 4D and 3D ultrasounds in their home at gender-reveal parties and to charge for the 3D images, but the FDA says these outfits are exploitative and ultrasounds should only be used by trained medical staff. 

The oversight agency also warns the excessive and repeated ultrasound imagery for non-medical reasons can be dangerous to the growing fetus and mom. 

This is interesting because while the trend perhaps is to get a better visualization of what the baby to look like, many women who purchased portable dopplers may like having the comfort of being able to monitor their baby’s heartbeat anytime. We imagine women who have had repeated miscarriages and fetus loss too may use the in-home devices so if there is a drop in heart rate, they could act. Granted, all of this probably contribute to increased false positive anxious calls from moms. 

What are your thoughts?

Read more about the new policy in the Huffington Post.