Feeling your fetus kick is exciting; not feeling the movements for prolonged periods is worrying. It is a good practice to keep a record of your unborn baby’s activities on a kick count sheet or in a notebook. It is an easy, non-invasive, harmless method you can use to monitor fetal well being during the third trimester. A fetus typically starts to make obvious movements which can be felt by the pregnant mother from around weeks 18-20 but it is only after week 28 of your pregnancy that you can actually count with some consistency. This is a reliable tool for assessing the well being of your fetus on your home grounds.
The Whys and the Whats of kick count
• These movements include kicks, turns, rolls and jabs; it excludes hiccups
• Fetus spends 10% of its time making gross, obvious movements
• The active phase lasts 40 minutes and the inactive for about 20 minutes
• You get to familiarize yourself with baby’s sleep/wake patterns.
• Most babies take less than 30 minutes to make 10 movements.
• Become familiar with baby’s emerging ‘personality’. Some babies are more active then others; this is not reflective of baby’s health but rather his/her nature
• Though charting fetal kick counts is highly useful in high risk pregnancies, it is beneficial for all pregnancies.
• It is a fine way of bonding with your baby.
• It is important to take into account that your baby has sleep times which can last up to 4 hours at a stretch, though it should not be longer than that.
• Kicks tend to slow down in the third trimester as it gets less roomy for fetus
• Studies show the average time to feel ten kicks are around 20-30 minutes.
