15/08/2025
Popular at-home fetal monitors linked to stillbirths, newborn deaths
By Kate Aubusson- Sydney Morning Hearld
August 15, 2025
Australia’s medical device watchdog is warning pregnant women against using popular portable fetal heart monitors, after the devices were implicated in six stillbirths and newborn deaths since 2022.
The most recent death was reported to the Threaparuic Goods Administration on Tuesday, a spokesperson said.
The sale of handheld fetal heart monitors – also known as portable fetal dopplers – was banned in Australia in September 2024 after a TGA review confirmed the devices were “falsely reassuring” pregnant women that their distressed unborn babies had healthy heartbeats, leading to delays in seeking medical attention and death.
But retailers have continued to sell the popular, though illegal, devices to would-be Australian parents.
“[W]e are aware of devices being sold illegally through online platforms,” the TGA said in a statement, adding: “There are no home-use [fetal] dopplers approved for supply in Australia by the TGA.”
People who use the devices without specialised training can easily mistake the sounds of the mother’s blood flow or the placenta as a fetal heartbeat, providing potentially inaccurate reassurance, obstetricians and midwives have warned.
“Using a home-use [fetal] heart monitor to check a baby’s heartbeat may seem reassuring, but it can be dangerously misleading,” the TGA’s alert read.
There have also been cases where parents could not find a fetal heartbeat using the devices, causing unnecessary panic, the TGA said.
A Google search for fetal monitors returns dozens of hits for portable dopplers for sale, including several Australian-based retailers, potentially attracting criminal and civil penalties.
The at-home devices drew worldwide scrutiny in 2009 after two UK anaesthetists raised the alarm in an article in the British Medical Journal, detailing the case of a 34-year-old woman who was 38 weeks pregnant when she noticed a decrease in fetal movements.
The woman reassured herself that the baby was OK by using her doppler to listen to what she thought was the fetal heartbeat over the next two days.
When she presented to her maternity ward on the third day an urgent ultrasound showed the baby had died.
“We assume the patient had been listening to her own pulse or placental flow,” the anaesthetists wrote.
They mentioned another case of “false reassurance” due to an at-home fetal heart monitor where a baby survived but needed a long stay in a neonatal intensive care unit and acquired serious neurological problems.
“If you are concerned about your unborn baby’s wellbeing, seek immediate attention from your midwife or doctor,” The TGA alert read. “DO NOT rely on home-use fetal heart monitors to check your baby’s heartbeat.”
