Fetal kick count chart

What are kick counts?

Kick counts are a way of keeping track of your baby's movements.

How to wake up baby for kick counts

They're a tally of how often you feel your baby move – and they can give you some insight into how your baby is doing.

A change in your baby's pattern of movements – and especially a decrease in pregnancy kick counts – may mean that your baby is stressed and needs help.

Pregnant women often notice a decrease in fetal movement before having a stillbirth.

But while awareness of your baby's movements is important, experts don't know for sure that any specific ways of tracking them – such as kick counts – are useful in reducing the risks of problems.

One analysis of more than 450,000 pregnancies concluded that giving pregnant women specific directions for counting their baby's movements didn't improve pregnancy outcomes (compared with not giving directions).

There were no differences in stillbirths, neonatal deaths, low birthweight, low Apgar scores, or NICU admission. There were small increases in

when should you start counting baby kicks

when do you start counting baby kicks