Your Baby’s Kicks Count
In my third pregnancy with Nancy, I was so busy. I would work 12 hour shifts asking other pregnant mums;
“Has your baby been moving well today?”.
Only when I would get 5 minutes to drink tea and eat cake (so never), empty my bladder (also never!) or get home would I ask myself the same question. I would take myself to the bath, with some cold water, chocolate or ice cream and concentrate on her movements. She would start kicking her little legs when that freezing cold ice cream would run passed her little toes. It became a nice daily ritual. It would be an opportunity to have a bit of bonding time with baby bump and also have a little check in on her to see if she was all good in there.
With my first pregnancy I remember going in with reduced movements only for the midwife to put her hands on my tummy and be met with a kick. I felt like such a time-waster. Now I have been the midwife, who puts my hands on a women’s bump to be met with a kick and I have NEVER thought for a second time was wasted. As a midwife I feel relief. I have also been the midwife to feel for baby’s position to be met with no kicks, to listen in to baby to hear no heartbeat, to be present at the scan to see no flicker of a heart.
Why do Kicks Count?
A baby that moves and kicks is a healthy baby. If a baby is under stress for whatever reason in the womb then the first thing a baby will do is to stop moving. Movement uses energy, so a baby under stress will stop or reduce movements to conserve its energy.
Shocking facts:
- The UK has one of the worst stillbirth rates in the developed world. Currently ranking 33 out of 35.
- Two out of three women who had a stillbirth noticed their baby’s movements had slowed down or stopped.
How to count your kicks
There is lots of mixed messages about how to count your kicks. Some mums to be may count episodes of movement or numbers of kicks within a certain episode. Either way is fine as long as you remember one thing, baby’s are little human beings and they are all different. There is not a one latex glove size to fit all. Your baby might be really active in the morning and in the evening, but you only feel little movements the rest of the day. Or your baby may make smaller movements but more regularly throughout the day. Whatever is normal for your baby is what should be your baseline for what is normal movements.
My top pieces of advice for counting the kicks
- Don’t assume that your baby will move less as you approach full term due to ‘less space’. Your baby’s movements will increase from your first kicks (between 16-24weeks). After that baby should be moving the same amount daily from about 32 weeks. The movements may be different. Instead of feeling a summersault feeling you may feel a wiggle or an elbow move. Never settle for ‘your baby has no room’ as a reason to why he/she isn’t moving.
- Don’t worry about phoning. As a midwife we would much rather you phoned every day than go days at home worrying about your baby’s health. It is important for us to know if your baby’s movements have stopped or slowed. Even if you are still worried about baby’s movements shortly after a check-up, you should still see your midwife straight away.
- Don’t use hand held dopplers or any home device to listen to your baby’s heartbeat. Just because you can hear your baby’s heartbeat doesn’t mean that he or she is healthy. Midwives will use a continuous fetal heart monitoring machine to see a pattern of your baby’s heartbeat. The pattern of the baby’s heartbeat is what will be used to determine the health of your baby if you are worried about movements.
Kicks Count is a charity that provide information on baby movements but also they create an awareness to empower mothers to have the confidence to trust their instincts when they suspect something is wrong and to contact their maternity provider. The charity sell wristbands as a reminder to pregnant mums to ‘count your kicks’, plus to create an awareness to other expectant mums that Kicks Count.
