30wks - baby has no "pattern" of movements - getting worried

[rimsky]

Hi all

At my 28 week midwife appointment we talked about the baby's movements. She said that we don't count movements anymore, but we follow the baby's pattern of movements to see if anything is wrong. She also said the baby's pattern doesn't change after 28 weeks, that's it's pattern and that's it.

Ever since it's been really bothering me, I have had days where it's really active, then go days with hardly anything. This doesn't fit in at all with what the midwife said at all!!

And now, after a lot of movements last week the baby seems quiet again. There are still movements, just not like the other week. I don't know whether to ring the hospital as advised by the midwife as this is a change of pattern, but I don't know if it's silly if I can still feel movements.

Am I taking the "pattern" advice too literally or should I be worried??

if you are worried then contact the hospital, I guarantee they would much rather put the mum of an entirely healthy baby's mind at rest than risk missing something which is going wrong.

Saying that, I never noticed any pattern to DDs movements, she moved sometimes and sometimes she didn't, no rhyme or reason. I was never worried so didn't go to the hospital, but if you are you should.

That doesn't sound right to me - the thing about the pattern of movements not changing after 28 weeks. I've never heard that before from any source. I've been pregnant twice and both times there have been active and quiet days. The amount of movement you feel is also determined by the baby's position, which still changes quite a lot at your stage of pregnancy, as it still has a lot of wriggle room.

I do think that as pregnancy progresses, a pattern does often start to establish itself but it's not fixed. Now I feel lots of movement every evening and not really much at all during the day, other than if I lie down. At your stage of pregnancy, however, I don't think I was noticing movement every evening, and there were random bursts of movement during some days but not others.

Based on what you've said I don't think you should worry - it doesn't sound to me like you're talking about a change in a well-established pattern of movements. But always ring the hospital if you are genuinely worried - you won't be wasting anyone's time and it's not worth taking the tiny outside chance that something really is wrong.

Certainly my first two had patterns to their movements, but my third did not (or maybe I was just too knackered by then to notice!) But even the first two's patterns changed over time. As you describe the baby would have busy days and quiet days.

I went to the hospital a couple of times
with dc1 and dc2 , because either I hadn't felt any movements for a day, or I was concerned about a change in the nature of the movements. Each time they monitored me in a way that checked not only whether the baby was moving, but also whether I was aware of the movements. Sometimes the position of the baby and of the placenta can affect whether you feel the movements.

Everything was fine. Each time they also todl me that they were perfectly happy to check me, and would rather I came in to be checked than stayed at home and worried or thought I would be wasting their time.