So in searching for a good gift for my best friend I stumbled across a prenatal heart listener the other day. It sparked my interest because she had asked if we had a stethoscope, which we don't. Does anyone know if this works well? I'd hate to get it for her and have it be too weak to hear or not work well. Here's an image of the one I saw:
http://i20.tinypic.com/29fchnn.jpg
Place the BebeSounds® Prenatal Heart Listener® on your stomach and listen to the wonderful sounds of your baby, months before birth, in the privacy of your own home! The monitor amplifies the natural sounds of your baby so you can hear kicks, hiccups, and the precious sounds of your baby's heartbeat. You can also record your own heartbeat and play it to soothe your newborn. It's safe for you and your baby because it doesn't use an AC current, ultrasound or radio waves. It includes 1 BebeSounds® Prenatal Heart Listener®, 2 headsets so a family member can listen too, 1 recording cable, and instructions in Spanish and English.

Yes, It would be a great gift for your friend. My friend also have one like that and it was really great. It only amplifies the sounds within few inches far from the kit. If you place that on her stomach, what you can only hear is the sound from the baby, not with the heart of the mother. Because some other products like that, you can hear the heart beat of the baby and also the mother at the same time.

They work just fine but I have personal reservations about using them. Having an untrained person use one can be dangerous-in that, if you fail to find the heartbeat because you are just not trained to do so, then you have a very scared and panicking mother to be who is off running to their doctor.

I thought long and hard about buying one myself and just decided it was a bad idea.

Maybe if you buy her one she can take it to one of her check ups and have a nurse or doctor teach her how to use it properly so she won't panic? I know I might get scared if I didn't hear a heartbeat possibly, but it must have instructions about how to use it that are fairly good or they wouldn't be marketing it still...I'd bet the nurse/doctor would be happy to help her out though to prevent any issues.

My own doctor was fine with the idea of them, but when I changed to a midwife she was adamantly against them. She won't teach patients how to use them, and said that she had three patients come screaming to her in fright that they were carrying a dead baby.

Not sure where I stand on them myself, how I feel about them.

I'm reading some pros and cons in using this Prenatal Heart Listener. But I will stand on the cons' side. I would rather have my wife go to a doctor for a checkup rather than having to use kind of device.

From my point of view... I think there will be no problem on prenatal heart listener since the unit is only using a sound amplifier and a simple speaker. Since an amplifier does not emit radio active frequencies, it would not be dangerous to the child inside the womb. It is only as simple as microphone placing in the mothers stomach.