No Heartbeat at 6 Weeks.

Dr. Spock's website says the fetal heart typically can't be visualized on ultrasound until 7 weeks. It may start beating at 5 weeks but often is not detected that early.

http://www.drspock.com/article/0,1510,5287,00.html

6 weeks is early to see heartbeat. That's why most doctor's offices don't do the first apt until 8 weeks.

Have heart. Thing may be just fine.

It is still quite early , I know the heart begins to beat at 5 weeks but it cannot always be picked up. In my 3rd pregnancy they could barely pick one up at 7 weeks so there is hope.

I will keep my fingers crossed

6 Weeks is just a general rule of thumb. The cardic sac does not start to function until between 6 weeks and 0 days and 6 weeks and 2 days of gestation. So the 6 week rule has been applied. If she had IVF; they are SURE of the dates. Now not seeing cardiac activity could mean 4 things.... (Again an IVF case is different than natural conception). 1) It could mean she was those early 2 days between 6&0 and 6&3. 2) It could mean she had an US tech that is not as experienced, 3) it could mean they only attempted an abdominal US when they should have done a vaginal (especially if she is a little fluffy in size) or 4) it could mean the implatation did not further divide and has not/will not turn into an embryo (failed attempt). I guess just give it a week and see what that brings. Just support her emotionally. Give her a hug and tell her to hang in there. Good Luck with being a frieend through this.

i had two embryos implanted and at 6 weeks they couldn't find one heartbeat. i was told i was experiencing what is known as the vanishing twin. at 8 weeks they found both heartbeats. of course i cried my heart out during those two weeks. but thankfully turns out it's too early to detect the heartbeat at 6 weeks. give your friend positive thoughts.
good luck to her and you

6 weeks is still considered early.

Heartbeats... from about 7 weeks, can be detected.

The tools used to detect the heartbeat are: vaginal sonogram, ultrasound, doppler heart detector.
Each having different sensitivity on detecting it.

How 'early' you can detect a heartbeat, depends on many factors....

Tell your friend try not to worry....

all the best,
Susan

I don't think it's uncommon for someone not to hear the heart beat at 6 weeks. I'm prego with my second right now (12 weeks along) and long story short I passed out in the bathroom and must have come down on the sink counter and needless to say had a big bloody mess. Anyway, since I was prego my husband took me into the ER to make sure everything was ok. This was when I was at 7 weeks. They did an ultra sound and couldn't hear the heart beat so than they had to to do a vaginal ultra sound and still had some trouble getting it but finally did. Then I had to go back in to the doctor the next week to get a check up and make sure the baby and myself were still doing ok. My doctor did not even try to hear the heart beat (this was at 8 weeks) because she said it's very rare that you can hear it this early on in the pregnancy. I'm 12 weeks now and the baby is doing great. So all this to say, I'm not a doctor but from what my doctor tells me it is not uncommon to not be able to hear the heart beat at that early of the pregnancy.

The answer is that there is still a chance for the baby.

IVF doctors have more sophisticated machines than regular OBs (typically they do a transvaginal sono).

However, it's still early enough for the baby to be just fine.

Blessings and prayers. (Our miracle is a result of our 3rd IVF attempt, so I feel like I have an honorary degree in IVF. Ha!)

This happened to my friend and it turns out it was a mistake. She just had her baby yesterday! So there is hope.

Yes. It became visible about a week and a half later. I went on to have a healthy baby boy.

Tell her not to lose hope yet. It's not always easy to see it at 6 weeks.

No, but my doctor won't even see a woman until 8 weeks because she thinks it is so easy to miss the heartbeat early. Are her hormone levels still rising?

It doesn't sound like good news, but I would hold out for tha tnext check.

6 weeks is a little early....I would wait for the next appointment.

Alot of times it is by mistake it is so tiny to detect did she have have an internal one?Did she have a blood test to see where her levels are?

How skilled is the person doing the ultra-sound? All I can say is why do medical doctors want an ultrasound so early in the pregnancy? Have you ever watched how babies move away from that equipment. It must be very disturbing to them.
Your friend should avoid becoming upset over this.
If she is not pregnant anymore then she should find an excellent acupuncturist who was trained in Taiwan and go weekly for treatments to straighten out her conception vessel (a main meridian in the body). Then for certain she will have a pregnancy that goes to term.

At 5 weeks I was told I had an oblighted ovum (empty sac). Just to be sure, I came back in at 7 weeks and there was a heartbeat almost too faint to see, even then. It's hard but tell her to stay positive!

My midwife wouldn't even see me till 10 weeks. When I went to an OB, they wouldn't see me till 8.

6 weeks is too early.

I don't believe I heard mine at six weeks. I was really disappointed=( but I heard it the next time!! I think it's a little soon to be so worried, but I can see why she is!! Best wishes!

Same thing happened to me. My daughter is now 4 1/2! I wish your friend the best. Sometimes the weeks can be miscalculated and she may be earlier in her pregnancy that her doctor is determining.

Hi Kat B. :)

This is a scary time for you and your friend, so do your best to remain calm and hopeful as that is the energy needed to support this pregnancy, if it is to be :-) I am not an OB/GYN nurse, so it has been years since I worked in this area, but on the internet I found a nice site which shows the development of the fetus, week by week. It is interesting how they break up the weeks... the first two they don't even contribute to the timing of the pregnancy and display developmental ages as "weeks since conception".. so it seems that indeed, waiting another week, or longer, may be necessary before one makes a final determination.

I would suggest you and your friend do as much as you can to stay "calm" so the uterus is able to receive and maintain this pregnancy. There is a simple technique called CORTICES which you can learn by clicking on my profile name and finding my business page and looking at the tab that says Dr. John Veltheim teaches CORTICES.

It is a simple, effective and non invasive Energy Medicine technique which can do wonders to bring calm and peace to the whole bodymind!

Here is also a link to the site I alluded to showing each week's development of the fetus.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/prenatal-care/PR00112

Big hugs to you and your friend,
A. R.N., Energy Medicine Practitioner

Yup!! Couldn't see mine until I was 8 weeks, and even then it was really hard to see. 6 weeks is pretty early!!

It depends on what else they saw and what they did. Doing a doppler, it is impossible to hear a heartbeat at 6 weeks. But if they do a transvaginal ultrasound, they should be seeing something. I was recently pregnant and they did a transvaginal ultrasound and couldn't find anything. I guess the baby stopped growing at about 4 weeks. It was horrible because my uterus was 6 1/2 week size and my body kept chugging a long like the baby was still growing. My doc told me that at that age there should be a sac, pole, and heart. I asked if there was anyway in a week that the baby would grow and it would show up. The short answer was a resounding no. They verified where I should be with blood levels and compared it to the ultrasound results. I would pray for the best, but support her through the possible worst.

i seen my sons heartbeat full blast at 6 weeks

I did, yes. It was completely nerve racking but at they look for things so early now that it does happen sometimes. My daughter is 3 now- they found the heartbeat at 7 weeks!

I did a vaginal ultrasound at 6 weeks and couldn't here the heartbeat. The only way they could even detect the heartbeat was with me holding my breath and staying perfectly still (which was very difficult!). The tech kept getting on to me saying "hold still" and "stop breathing for a sec" cause she had a LOT of difficulty finding it. I didn't get to REALLY hear it for the first time until 8.5 weeks.

My friend was possibly 7 weeks and they didn't even see a baby. The tech didn't really tell her anything and then sent her home with some bleeding. A week later her they were able to confirm everything and she has a beautiful preschooler now.

Hi,
My sono could not detect a HB at 5.5 weeks and could a week later. That is a stressful week! Yet I have a sweet two week old daughter sitting beside me now. I, too, thought the worst and freaked out!
Good luck to your friend!

My dr doesn't even take me until 8 weeks, so I think things could still be ok. I wish your friend the best!!

I don't remember ever seeing a heart beat that early. I had 5 kids. It seems like it was later. When I had a miscarriage, they couldn't even see the baby at that age. Good luck!