How do you count fetal movements?

First of all, let’s recognize what is fetal movement? Fetal movement is actually the physical activity of the fetus in the mother’s uterus, due to the impact of the uterine wall, which makes the pregnant woman self-experienced a kind of sensation, of course, sometimes through the examiner can also see or feel the fetal movement. Under normal circumstances, generally after 18-20 weeks of pregnancy, pregnant women began to feel fetal movement, but women in labor may appear a little earlier. Fetal movement gradually increases with the progress of pregnancy, and reaches its peak at 32-34 weeks, and then, due to the reduced space for fetal activity in late pregnancy, fetal movement also begins to gradually decrease after 38 weeks of pregnancy. Normal fetal movement is usually about 3-5 times per hour. In our clinic, we start to ask the pregnant women whether they feel the fetal movement when they first get their cards, and teach them how to count the fetal movement. Usually, we stipulate that pregnant women should count once a day in the morning, midday and evening, each time for 1 hour, ≥3 times/1 hour or ≥6 times/2 hours is considered normal, while 6 times/2 hours or 50% less than the previous day suggests that intrauterine distress may be possible, and the need to find out the cause. When counting fetal movement, continuous movement is counted as the first time, and movement at intervals of more than 5 minutes is counted as the second time. Fetal movement monitoring is an important indicator for pregnant women to self-evaluate the intrauterine condition of the fetus, and it is also one of the most simple and effective methods. Of course, when counting the fetal movement, you should pay attention to the sleep-wake cycle of the fetus, generally the fetus sleeps for 40 minutes, if the fetal movement is not much, you can prolong the time counting. In addition, the general situation is that the fetus in the hungry, the early morning in the sleep state when the fetal movement is less, of course, pregnant women in the use of some sedative, antispasmodic drugs when the fetal movement is also reduced, the amplitude is also small; and in the pregnant women’s meals or evening 18:00-22:00 fetal movement is more, the amplitude is larger. If the fetal movement is less, you can change the sleeping position, or change the position, or chat with the baby to stroke the abdomen, and then observe the fetal movement. Generally speaking, most of them can be improved by these simple treatments.