Movements Driving Me Mad!!

[Keggles36]

This is more of a rant/looking for people experiencing the same!

I am going to caveat it with the fact that I am a midwife, and I will go to triage if I am really worried. I will also be looking at how I discuss movements with women in future, as I don't think the advice we give covers the vast range of movements people have - and not all babies have patterns (my little horror being one of them it turns out!!)

But is anyone being slowly driven mad by mild anxiety about movements? I am 29 weeks pregnant and have an anterior placenta that is very much in the way. I feel something every day, but last week it was kicking my left side where the placenta isn't and they were huge, now it's behind the placenta and feels like flutters. It also has no pattern at all! Some nights I'll feel it at 4am, then at lunch time, then in the evening. Other days it won't wake up until 10 but then continuously do it, and some days I really have to focus to even notice anything.

I was going to call last week but was sent in anyway due to baby measuring really small with the tape measure, and monitoring was great and on the scan it's huge 🤦🏼‍♀️ and was moving everywhere and I couldn't feel a thing!

I think I just want to know I'm not going insane, and other people are having the same sort of experience. Any tips to manage anxiety would be welcome!!

[Boo718]

hello, I was exactly the same I had an anterior placenta and barely felt any movements well into my pregnancy and even then there was absolutely no pattern and I had to really pay attention to feel anything. Closer to the end I felt a couple of rolls but honestly most days not much of anything and I had to really prod about xxx

[Keggles36 in reply to Boo718]

It's so stressful isn't it!!

[Sunonarainyday]

I had our first 3 children in the early 80's and kick chats weren't a thing back then, in fact there was no Google so I was relatively stress free the whole of each pregnancy lol. Then we had number 4 in '97 and everything had changed, I remember the mw handing me a piece of paper and saying can you fill in this kick chart and me saying what the heck is a kick chart?? That was the start of my pregnancy anxiety but at least I only had 10 weeks to go 😂 I think you need to put trust in your body to do the right thing and bear in mind that you would notice if there was a problem, continuously worrying about something unnecessarily isn't good for your head. I have to keep reminding my daughter of this as her anxiety is sometimes off the charts 😔 I blame Dr. Google xx

[Keggles36 in reply to Sunonarainyday]

Doctor Google has lots to answer for I think!!

[CXCYCZ]

My baby had no pattern, I had so many scans in the end because I was getting so stressed I was booked in for twice weekly CGT. Every time he passed the test within the first 12 minutes and he was moving around and I just could not feel it.

When the scan told me there was a movement unless it was an almighty kick, I felt nothing!

He had no pattern and I was so stressed because I was led to believe he should have one. The midwife just said to me one day, well maybe his pattern is that he doesn’t have one!

[Keggles36 in reply to CXCYCZ]

This is exactly how I feel!

I'm so sorry the advice is misleading, I'm going to really think about this at work in future to try and make it less stressful!

[Kitkat10]

hi, yes I had the same with my daughter. Went to triage 3 times between 30 and 37 weeks. There was no pattern, other than one active day was often followed by a quiet day which worried me a lot. Sometimes very little movement over night so I would lie awake panicking, then to phone triage at 5am, go in and then feel lots of movements in the car on the way 🤷🏻‍♀️

This was my second pregnancy so I wanted to say I was left anxious, but I wasn’t because the movements were so random. I was desperate for her to be born so that I didn’t have to worry about that anymore and could move onto worrying about something else 😂

So I totally understand how you feel and my midwives were amazing but they couldn’t really help me with the randomness of the movements and just reminded me about going to triage.

Sorry not to have any useful advice, just that I was in the same boat but my daughter was completely fine when she was born, oh and hardly moved at all during my 12 hour induction , but the midwives weren’t worried, while I was having an internal panic attack 😂

Every trip to triage was 100% worth it for peace of mind and as I was 43, they also sent me for extra scans for cord flow checking etc when u reported reduced movement, which was also reassuring and I was super grateful for.

You’re not going insane, the same happened to me and if the midwives thought I was crackers, they covered it well 😂 my care was excellent and I am forever grateful to the midwives who looked after me and my babe xx

Good luck 🍀🍀 not long to go xx

[Keggles36 in reply to Kitkat10]

Thank you so much for such a kind and lovely reply ❤️ I think I'm going to be seeing a lot of triage too! Glad your experience had a good outcome 😊

[Chubbstep]

I had it the exact same - anterior placenta and felt barely anything most of the time all the way through. If I thought it had been around 12hours or more I'd have a hot shower, fizzy juice and lie flat on my back and if it didn't start something I'd go into triage only to find them moving around loads for the midwife or doing massive kicks in the waiting room 😅 every appt asking about movements and the pattern and he had absolutely none - I'm pretty sure it was nothing to do with the placenta location though. Now he's here he does tend to be very still when listening or concentrating so me poking about trying to make him move might have been making things worse for us 🤣 the questions and advice was very anxiety provoking for me throughout and I just ended up answering something along the lines of "normal for us" and trying not to be concerned we weren't following the apparent norm.

[Keggles36 in reply to Chubbstep]

I'm so sorry the advice and guidance made it more stressful 😞 but thank you so much for your reply - that's really reassuring! Congratulations on your little one 😊