Here at theAsianparent, we aim to make your pregnancy and parenting journey happy, memorable and most importantly, healthy. With this in mind, every bit of information on our website, every tool on our app that we bring you, will guide, educate and inform you so that you and your little one can stay in the pink of health.
One such tool is the Kick Counter on theAsianparent app. For pregnant women to have healthy pregnancies, it is of utmost importance that they learn when to start counting kicks and how to monitor and record their baby’s movements in the womb, starting from early in the third trimester (around week 27). And the Kick Counter helps you do exactly this.
When to start counting kicks?
Why is it important to start counting kicks and why do it? Because understanding your baby’s unique movement pattern will ensure that you know that he or she is okay. Once you know how many kicks your little one typically engages in within an hour or during the day, you will also know when your baby deviates from this pattern.
Often, when a baby’s movements in the womb reduce, change or stop, it could indicate an issue. In some cases when this happens, stillbirth could be the devastating outcome.
Simply put, knowing your baby’s kick pattern and knowing when this changes could help reduce the chances of stillbirth.
Why the Kick Counter?
The reason theAsianparent created this tool is that we realised that stillbirth is a real problem in Southeast Asia (SEA). About 105,000 babies were lost in stillbirths in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam in 2015 alone. That means every day that year, an average of 287 families received the devastating news of full-term pregnancy loss. However, one-third of these losses could have been prevented — and one way of prevention is counting your baby’s kicks or movements.
With the aim of reducing pregnancy loss in Southeast Asia through education and awareness, theAsianparent launched Project Sidekicks. And in line with this cause, we launched our Kick Counter.
Experts say that the normal movement of a baby inside the womb is approximately 10 times an hour. The Kick Counter not only helps you track your baby’s kicks but also record them so that you can detect if there is a change in the pattern or no movement at all. This enables you to seek medical advice, and if needed — intervention — quickly.
Kick Counter Tool: How to use it
You will find the Kick Counter in the “Tools” section of theAsianparent app.
Click on that icon and start your counting!
Once you click the tool, you’ll be brought to the Kick Counter itself:
If you are unsure of what to do, the instructions are easy to follow.
Once you have read the instructions, press the start button to start counting kicks!
It’s actually fun and you can involve your partner in the recording the kicks.
And you can pick what KIND of “kick” it is.
This part is usually a fun guessing game!
Continue recording the kicks over one hour, or 60 minutes. The best time to do this is right after eating as this is usually when babies are most active.
You can even set up reminders for yourself to make sure that you count your kicks every day!
Try to set your alarms to when meal times are.
There are daily, weekly and monthly reports of your activity so you can keep up easily with the health of your pregnancy this way. This will help you monitor and overview the kicks of your baby.
Kick counts in pregnancy and how important it is.
Kick counts in pregnancy also create bonding opportunities between you and your unborn baby, and between your partner and your developing baby too. Or if you already have a child, it’s a great activity to introduce him or her to his/her sibling, and engage in bonding.
The reports that are generated when you use the Kick Counter are useful, as you can show these to your doctor during checkups.
Our kick counter is not the only feature in our app. There are plenty of other tools that help pregnant women, moms, and dads in raising their kids, like the Pregnancy and Baby Development Trackers, the Media Module, and the Recipe Feature. We also have a wonderfully supportive community of parents, prizes and rewards to win, and much more.
Click here to download theAsianparent app now.
So, let us know if you have been using our kick counter app. We would love to hear what kind of kicks you have been getting!
To read more on the importance of counting kicks, CLICK HERE.
READ MORE:
Debunking 6 popular myths about stillbirth
Stillbirth: When to Worry, and When Not to Worry, if Your Baby is Moving Less
Counting Kicks: Why & How to Track Fetal Movement