When you are pregnant, you are advised to keep healthy by everyone especially doctors, because you are growing another human inside you. What you do to yourself now affects your baby too. There are obvious dangers and things that you should not do, but how do you know what you are doing is helping your little bub inside you? How can you monitor their progress and health? There are a few options to check out when you are trying to monitor your foetal movements.
Why It is Important
Let us start with WHY you need to monitor your foetal movements. Monitoring your baby's movements while pregnant helps you make sure that your baby is healthy. There are times that you may not be able to go to a doctor for a check up. Another reason may be that you my have experienced pregnancy loss before. It may even be that you have a condition that may affect your baby's health. Any of these scenarios, or even if you are having a "normal" pregnancy, it is good to keep up with what is going on inside your body where your baby resides.
How can you Monitor Foetal Movements
There are a number of ways to monitor your foetal movements or kicks. You can usually feel kicks starting as early as 18 weeks, but it differs for every woman, and every pregnancy. The feeling also differs between trimester. So once you have established that your baby is actually kicking, here are the tools you can use to help you count. The average or healthy range of "kicks" (which can also be rolls and flutters some of the time) is about ten within an hour. It is said though that sometimes if you do not feel that many in an hour, to not panic, as they may be sleeping or resting.
- theAsianparent's Kick Counter
The Kick Counter is a tool that has been developed at theAsianparent inside its app to help pregnant women count their kicks. It is fairly simple to use: you just open the app when you feel those kicks start coming, and then click on the button every time there is another kick coming in. This tool can help record the times you used it, how long, and how many kicks happened during that session. This is something you can share with your doctor during your examinations that can help ensure your baby's health. It may also be something that can be used to help you and your partner bond over the pregnancy.
2. Mama's Choice Kick Counter Wristband
Made with silicone that is easy to slip on and off your wrist, it also comes in a cute pink color. It's easy to use: you just adjust the indicator as you count your kicks! This can help physically and visually remind you to count the kicks as well if you are also going through 'pregnancy brain.'
3. Foetal Doppler machine
This is a machine that you can find either at your doctor's office, of you can purchase one for use at home. This is a machine that is usually a hand held ultrasound, to put it simply. It uses soundwaves to hear and monitor the foetal heartbeat. It is the machine that they use to check out your baby's heartbeat in the first trimester of pregnancy.
Can you Encourage Baby Kicks?
The short answer is yes you can. But some tips you can do are pretty simple:
- Eat a snack - Usually this gets them going (as it probably does for you too!) and kicking. That is why it is recommended that one of the best times to monitor foetal movement like their kicks is right after you have eaten a meal.
- Move your baby bump around gently - Do not shake it! Just make sure that there is some movement to your bump, or even gently poke or caress it to encourage movement.
- Talk or play music - Your baby usually will respond to being spoken to, or hearing music. You can try that to help get them going. Just make sure the music is not too loud.
- Do exercise and then sit or lie down - When you are still not that far along, this may be an option. The sudden burst of activity and then rest will stimulate your baby and this could help them start kicking.
Make Monitoring Foetal Movements Bonding Time
Whichever tool you use for monitoring your baby's movements, it will help in the long run in ensuring you have a healthy pregnancy. Enjoy these moments and make it a bonding experience with yourself and the family. This can be with your partner, or even your older children to help ease them into the big sibling role.
Start counting those kicks!
Related Articles:
How To Use The Kick Counter On theAsianparent App
How to Count Your Baby's Kicks, and Why is It So Important?