The bond between a mother and her unborn child is one to be cherished through each phase of the pregnancy journey. As the days go by, a mother can easily notice the fetal movements the baby makes within her as she goes about her daily activities. Monitoring these movements becomes critical by the third trimester. Although the movements may seem normal, tracking their frequency is important in determining the baby’s overall welfare as time progresses. In this article, you’ll discover more about your pregnancy kick count, why it’s important, and how to count it.
What Is Your Pregnancy Kick Count?
Baby movements are an important way to determine its activity. The process of tracking these fetal movements is known as pregnancy kick counts. With these movements, a mother measures the frequency of her baby’s activities such as, kicking, swishing, jabbing, rolling, and even fluttering. Every movement apart from hiccups counts towards the fetal kick counts. According to Obstetrics and Gynae professionals, this movement should occur up to 10 times in up to two hours.
Why pregnancy kick count is important to your baby’s health
By the third trimester, you’re gradually preparing to have your baby and all signs are vital at this time. Knowing the frequency of your baby’s kicks, rolls, and other movements that counts towards your baby’s fetal kicks can make a lot of difference. Consistently tracking your baby’s kick count will help you to be more familiar with its movement patterns. As time progresses, it’s easier to detect when the movement becomes unusual and infrequent within the usual time span.
When such abnormalities occur, noticing them early makes it easier to act fast. You can easily inform your health care provider about these changes, to ensure that your baby is properly monitored. When an inconsistent fetal kick occurs, it could be an early sign that your baby is in danger and need urgent attention. Recognizing if your baby is in distress can help to save a baby early enough than waiting till delivery only to discover something has gone wrong.
While you don’t have to be paranoid that something might go wrong with your baby all the time, taking your pregnancy kick counts makes it easy to connect with your baby way before birth. You’re able to tell when the baby is awake or asleep, and even feeling playful. This healthy connection is great for your baby’s growth and your overall mental frame as a mother.
What’s The Best Position to Take Your Baby’s Kick Count?
While there’s no specific position to count your fetal kick, sitting in a relaxed position can be helpful in order to stay calm and notice every movement. Some experts opine that lying on your left side can help to improve blood circulation which could induce movements from your child.
How To Track Your Baby Kick Count in Pregnancy
You’re likely to start getting familiar with your baby’s movements as it develops within you, especially from the second trimester. However, the movements from this stage are not frequent enough to notice a consistent pattern. In the third trimester, when your baby is about 28 weeks, your baby is even more developed and it is easier to track its movements at this stage.
At this point, you’re likely to notice that the movements are more frequent within the hour and you can record the counts as they come. Depending on how active your baby is, you’re likely to record at least 10 movements within the period of one to two hours. On some days, you may record more movements within this period, it’s all good.
Additionally, you may be tempted to consider only strong movements from your baby, however, all movements are important to your pregnancy kick count, as long as they occur frequently. There’s no specific time of the day to count your baby’s kicks as long as you find a comfortable time for you. It should be a time when you’re relaxed, and if possible one that you can stick to.
Does this mean you’d have to go all day taking your pregnancy kick count? Absolutely not. Once a day is fine, except you want to keep count just for the fun of it.
Your most important counts are the 1st and the 10th movement and you might want to use a pregnancy kick count app to track the timing of these movements or use the traditional pen and paper method. With these, you become familiar with the baby’s movement patterns and you’re able to spot any significant deviation from the norm.
Once you know the range of time it takes for your baby to make it up to 10 movement counts, it’s easier to track sudden changes in the pattern as your delivery date approaches.
What Happens If Your Pregnancy Kick Counts Are Few?
The main essence of tracking your pregnancy kick counts is to know if there are any threats to your baby. It’s important to work with your health care personnel in checking your baby’s overall condition if you’re not hitting the 10-movement counts in two hours.
If it’s due to a special condition with your pregnancy, you’ll get a modified way to address your baby’s movement with your physician’s help. Also, they’ll let you know if there’s something to be worried about or if your baby is totally fine.
As you near delivery, the baby’s movements are likely to change, but it would still be noticeable enough for you to take the counts.
