How Does Your Growing Baby Move in Your Womb?

One of the most common question from a pregnant patient for her obstetrician is how much should my baby be moving; yet oddly enough the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has no official position on the topic!

New studies indicate that much of our advice regarding movement isn’t really backed up by research!

We tell women to be aware of their kick counts and look for at least ten kicks per hour. However, a well done study says watching for that number didn’t change the rate of stillbirths. Better to just look for a change.

Many women think their babies slow down at the end of pregnancy, this is not true either. Even full term babies should move as much as they moved when they were smaller!

We also thought that we can feed the baby into action, not true. Babies move mostly when they are awake, and that cycle is not affected by the amount of food or sugar a mom takes in.

We never used to think that a baby can move ‘too much.’ This also turns out to be a myth, and some babies before they have died were actually moving around a lot more. So report to your doctor if the baby is moving too little or too much.

Babies also move the same when mom is awake or asleep, babies don’t sleep just because we do.

Knowledge is power, and it’s important to get educated on this topic as much as possible.