• Interesting facts about baby kicks
  • Expert tips from a gynecologist
  • Answered: questions on baby kicks

Expecting mothers are excited about their baby's kicks during pregnancy. These kicks start after a particular gestational age and keep reminding you of the life that is growing within and volition presently be in your arms. The kicks also enable fathers to connect with their babies. Moreover, the baby's kicks indicate the healthy development of your infant. Therefore, most doctors advise you to keep rails of these movements to ensure the well-beingness of the growing babe.

The below post shares some facts about the infant's kicks and a chart that helps track your baby's movements.

Interesting Baby Kick Facts

Afterwards reading these facts, you cannot merely marvel at the miracle called pregnancy.

1. Kicks by and large signify normal development and wellness of a baby

The babe kicks usually indicate that your baby is developing well inside the womb. Yous tin empathize that the baby is active when they turn, tumble, coil, and kick inside the womb. Moreover, a swishing feeling or palpitate tin can exist experienced in the abdomen when the babe stretches out its limbs. These movements become more than distinct towards the later stages of pregnancy.

two. The baby is likely to respond to external stimuli

Babies kick in response to some changes in the surrounding environment. Any external stimuli such as the food you eat or unlike noises can make the baby move or kick.

  • Response to sounds: During the 20th week, the fetus begins to hear low-pitch sounds and gradually begin to high-pitched sounds every bit the pregnancy gain (one). These movements can indicate the normal growth of the infant.
  • Response to foods: The food that the mother eats during pregnancy introduces the baby to various flavors through the amniotic fluid that surrounds the infant inside the womb. These flavors can make the baby move if they similar or dislike them (2).

3. The baby'south kicks increment when lying on the side

You can experience more than kicks if you sleep on your side. This is because the supply of claret to the baby increases while lying on the left or right side, thereby improving their movements.

Professor Peter Stone of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, who led a written report published in The Journal of Physiology, says (three): "When the female parent slept on her back, the baby became less active, which conserves oxygen. We found that the babies were but in an active country when the mother was on her left or right side. When the mother changed position during sleep, for instance from left to dorsum sleeping, the baby quickly changed activity state."

4. Kicks are felt later ix weeks

A feeling of flutter in the abdomen during the early stages of pregnancy is an indication of babe movements. The movements start around the seventh week of pregnancy, which is very early for the expecting mother to feel them. Typically, babies outset kicking after 9 weeks of gestation as they get-go moving their limbs (4). The early on kicks tin can be detected during an ultrasound scan. Later on 24 weeks of gestation, y'all tin can feel the babe'southward kicks and hiccups quite often.

[ Read: Why Do Babies Get Hiccups In Womb ]

five. Reduced kicks might bespeak the baby's distress

Once yous consummate 28 weeks, your medico advises you lot to keep a count of the infant's kicks. A baby, usually, kicks ten times in two hours (5). A reduced fetal activity can indicate fetal distress such equally:

  • Maternal stress or nutritional problems. Your emotional and concrete land impacts the baby'south movements. Similarly, inadequate nutritional supply can lead to improper development of the encephalon and nervous systems that tin can reduce the fetal activity. Drink a lot of water or keep walking around if yous do not feel the move of the baby.
  • Placental abruption. This is an emergency. Dark haemorrhage with clots likewise as woody hard and tender abdomen.Information technology can restrict the flow of blood and oxygen to the fetus, impacting its development.
  • Premature rupture of the amniotic sac. It can lead to decreased amniotic fluid and slow down the fetal movements due to stress or insufficient supply of oxygen.
  • Fetal hypoxia: This condition arises when the umbilical cord gets twisted, kinked or deformed. This cuts the supply of oxygen to the infant.

An ultrasound scan or a not-stress test can help determine the infant's heartbeat and the reason for reduced fetal movements.

[ Read: Non Stress Exam During Pregnancy ]

6. Nothing to worry about reduced kicks in tardily pregnancy

Ordinarily, babies take rest in the womb for 20 to forty minutes (sometimes up to 90 minutes) at a time. Yet, as they grow in size, their movements and rolling become hard in the later stages of pregnancy. Therefore, it is normal for the number of kicks to reduce. Even so, during this fourth dimension, y'all may experience painful kicks under your ribs and jerking that lasts for a few minutes (6).

7. Fetal movement indicates hereafter beliefs

According to a study, the motor behavior of the baby inside the womb is probable to influence the temperament attributes in the early childhood (7). However, this is not the only criteria for a child's behavioral development.

These facts have fabricated you feel skilful, haven't they? You wouldn't have imagined your baby could exist this active and naughty inside the womb!

After knowing these facts, we are sure that you take several questions about kicks in your womb. Read on as nosotros answer several such questions.

[ Read: Causes Of Slow Fetal Growth ]

Expert Tips From A Gynecologist:

  • During the sixth month of gestational catamenia, you lot volition kickoff to feel your baby kick in your womb. Initially, one or ii kicks/hr is a expert indication that you're pregnancy is condom.
  • If you are not able to feel your baby'due south kicks, wait and check afterwards 1 hour.
  • If yous exercise not feel the kicks even later on an hour, accept sugar-based products like sweetness milk, chocolate, or a compression of saccharide, and prevarication down in the left lateral position for ten minutes.
  • Check for your babe's kicks once more. If they aren't coming, so blitz to your doctor immediately.

— Dr. Anuradha Dang, MBBS, MS

Suvidha Infirmary, Jabalpur, India

Answered: seven Questions On Baby Kicks

Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions on baby kicks:

ane. When can I feel my babe'due south move during pregnancy?

You lot can feel the first baby movements around 18 weeks of pregnancy. These movements are called 'quickening'. In the first pregnancy, you experience the movements towards the 20th week, while in the 2nd and subsequent pregnancies, you lot can discover the signs around the 16th calendar week (8). The baby move patterns change every bit the pregnancy proceeds, making you observe about 16 to 45 movements in an 60 minutes.

2. What if the babe's movements are reduced?

Practise not ignore any noticeable change in your baby'south movements. Speak to your doctor, who will recommend a solution based on the phase of your pregnancy (9):

  • Acircular 24 weeks: If y'all do not feel movements by the 24th week, then contact your doctor. An ultrasound scan aid determine your infant's well-being.
  • Between 24 and 28 weeks: You will be advised a prenatal cheque-upwards that includes checking your blood pressure, measuring the size of the uterus, and testing the poly peptide levels in your urine. Y'all will too have an ultrasound scan.
  • Over 28 weeks: A full antenatal check-up is advised and the fetal heartbeat is monitored for at least 20 minutes. An ultrasound browse will be done to check the amount of fluid in the sac, size of the uterus, growth of the babe, and the risks associated with stillbirth.

[ Read: Ultrasound In Pregnancy ]

3. When should I be concerned near the baby's movement?

You should worry if:

  • you take less than ten movements in two hours.
  • there is reduced response towards the external stimuli similar loud noise or food.
  • there is a gradual subtract in the movements for two consecutive days.

iii. Why do babies kick more in the womb at night?

Babies develop a unique pattern of movements inside the womb. During the day, yous might be engaged in various activities. So, when your movements stop at night while yous are sleeping, the fetus might become warning and begin kicking.

Also, the fetus starts responding to sounds. So, the baby may observe that at that place is silence outside and hence motion due to the changes in the external environs.

4. When am I non probable to experience my baby'due south movement?

  • You cannot feel your baby'south movements when yous are active.
  • If your placenta is positioned at the front of your uterus, you might not feel the movements.
  • If your babe'south dorsum is at the front of the uterus, yous will feel fewer kicks than when it is lying at the back.
  • If you have an increased body habitual (BMI), movements may be delayed until well into the second or third trimester.

5. Practise I need to keep a count of the kicks every day?

If your pregnancy is proceeding normally, so there is no demand to keep a count of your baby'due south movements. Just if you lot exercise non notice movements for some hours or a day, you need to monitor the kicks after a meal or when you sleep, or at the time when the baby is commonly active.

Dr. Manik Pansey MBBS, MS, Anant Hospital, Jabalpur, India, advises pregnant women to maintain DMFC (daily fetal move count chart), and bank check it at a stock-still time every day, ideally at 8am.

[ Read: Fetal Echocardiography: Process & Risks ]

6. What practice I exercise if my baby is non boot?

If you have noticed reduced movements and then you may do this:

  • Sit down and relax.
  • Take a cold beverage or snacks and go along your feet upwardly. The coldness and the sugar in the food tin cause the baby to respond.
  • The infant might respond through hiccups, rolls, kicks, thumps or pokes.

seven. How do I count the kicks?

Here is a daily kick count chart y'all can maintain to record the number of kicks per day (ten).

Daily Kick Counts by Calendar week of Pregnancy

Days

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

forty

41

42

Monday

Tuesday

Midweek

Thursday

Fri

Sat

Sunday

Feeling the kicks of your baby is a major milestone in pregnancy. It indicates the well being of your baby, and is reassuring to y'all that all is well with your pregnancy. No wonder, your doctor asks about the movements in all your monthly visits. Therefore, keep feeling your babe's kicks, and if they accept slowed downwards or stopped, call on your md later the initial examination at home.

When did you first feel your babe'due south kicks during pregnancy? Share your feel in the annotate section.

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  • Loud Noises During Pregnancy
  • Is It Rubber To Bend During Pregnancy?
  • What Is A 4D Ultrasound Scan & How It Works?
  • What Is The Umbilical Cord & Its Effects On Pregnancy?

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Dr. Kofi Kwaw-Asante runs a private do in South Africa, every bit an obstretrician and gynecologist. He obtained his undergraduate medical caste in 2009 and masters in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 2016, both from the Academy of Pretoria. In 2017, Dr Kwaw-Asante founded his private practice Life Fourways. He is registered with the Health Professions Council Of Southward Africa (HPCSA) and... more than

Shreeja holds a postgraduate degree in Chemistry and diploma in Drug Regulatory Affairs. Before joining MomJunction, she worked as a research analyst with a leading multinational pharmaceutical company. Her interest in the field of medical research has developed her passion for writing enquiry-based articles. As a author, she aims at providing informative articles on wellness and pharma, especially related to... more than