How come all the guides say you can't feel movement before about 15 weeks?

[JamesAndTheGiantBanana]

... yet on every website/forum which says this, there are hoardes of women commenting underneath that they felt movement from about 11 or 12 weeks? How can so many women be "wrong"? I am on my third, I felt movement at 16 or 17 weeks with my first, 11 weeks with my second, and now this evening I felt it with my current baby who is about 11.5 weeks. I know it's the baby, it feels like a fluttering/tickling sensation just at my pubic bone at the front, like someone gently drawing a finger along the inside, now and then. It feels nothing like wind.

So how come all the guides say we can't feel this? and how come when so many women disagree, don't they change their opinion on this?

S'tosh. I felt the first one at 13 weeks, the third at 9 weeks . The other two (DD1 and DD3) at about 16 weeks. DS and DD3 were wriggle monkeys and remained so after birth.

I agree. I kept thinking I was mad as I'm sure I felt this one (DC3) at about 13 weeks. I definitely felt DC1 at 16 weeks and I know people thought that was odd. I am certain that it wasn't psychosomatic and I'm not a particularly pregnancy obsessed person thinking about it all the time.

Do any books actually say you can't feel movement until later or just give an indication that on average you may not feel movement until 15 weeks plus? I haven't read many books but the ones I have are pretty non-committal about exactly when you feel things. If they suggested it was normal at an earlier stage there'd probably be lots of women panicking over nothing.

I wondered that too, i felt movements from very early on.
I think it's so that it doesn't worry women unnecessarily. I'd be pretty worried if a book said that movements could be felt from 15 weeks onward and didn't feel anything until 22 weeks (like many women do).

I could feel ds2 at 9 weeks. Everybody dismissed it out of hand. I reckon its about position.

Think it's so people don't worry. A lot depends on how active baby is , where the placenta is, how aware you are of what it should feel like. The MW told me this time my lack of stomach muscles enhance movement hence everything being early/feeling dramatic.

It's so that people like me don't panic. I can only just feel movements now, occasionally, and I'm nearly at 20 weeks. And sometimes I still can't tell if it's my baby or my lunch

I felt mine at 12 weeks, 10 weeks and 13 weeks (my third had an anterior placenta so was later and fainter)

Was definitely the baby each time, dp could feel them a week or so after I could and by 15/16 weeks we could see them move.

I agree its about position, I felt dc1 at 11 weeks when I was sitting in a strange position twisting round to get something. I'm 100% certain it was my wriggly baby I felt despite everyone saying it was impossible.

You're probably right about position, I felt mine yesterday when I had the laptop resting against my stomach. I only feel it now and then when it's very quiet and I'm "tuned in" to it.

I guess it might be so women don't worry, but it's crap being told categorically by a male consultant as I was in my last pregnancy, that it was impossible to feel movement at 11 weeks. His lack of uterus aside, I didn't know whether he was calling me stupid or a liar! He must get enough women saying it, why do they have to be so black and white?

I agree with you James - and it never feels like 'butterflies' to me either, more like little tiny slight digs/kicks.

My MW told me that with 2nd and subsequent babies you were more likely to feel them earlier because firstly you would recognise the movement for wat it was rather than just wind and secondly your muscles have already been knackered and therefore there is less resistance to teh movements. THe books are probably really meant for first timers who may feel the movements later and it helps them not to panic!!

I didn't feel DD until 21 weeks. I would have panicked if I had read that it was normal to feel your baby much earlier. I'm sorry but I am very sceptical of those of you who felt your babies at 9 weeks. Surely it is just too small?

I admit I don't understand the science in feeling your baby move at 9 weeks. Its less than an inch long at that stage and surrounded by a huge amount of fluid...

I'm not saying there aren't women who do feel it but I suspect a large majority are feeling other movement within their uterus while things expand and mistake this for their baby moving...

I felt very light popping sensations in two different places at about 11 weeks. Said it to my DP and he said I was imagining it. At 12 week scan, it was twins. Those sensations got stronger and stronger.

The thing is - at 12 weeks the baby is about the size of a grape. So very very small. I think the movements we feel are probably more to do with the changes going on down there - increased blood supply etc.

CareerGirl - closer to the size of a lime, I would say (why is the comparison always to fruit?!). My LO measured 6.5 cm at 12+5, according to the scan, which is one heck of a grape!

31 weeks with DC1, and at 11+4 I felt four very distinct little pops, like popcorn going off really low down at my pubic bone, quite far over to the right hand side. Thought I was slightly nuts to even think I had felt the baby at that stage yet at my OB appointment that week, it was the exact place that the MW found the baby's heartbeat - so now am convinced.

This thread is so useful - I've been feeling little flicks for just over a week now. At first I wasn't sure but now I'm convinced as they're getting more and more frequent day by day.

I first felt them just before 16 weeks though so was convinced it couldn't be movement because 'first time mums don't feel anything til 18-20 weeks'!

I felt mine very early, most health care people don't believe me but my community midwife did. As I had HG and lost lots of weight, was in bed a lot at about 9 weeks I felt a bubbles sensation low down to the left side. As the weeks went by they increased in intensity until I felt actual movements. Also when I had my scan, where I felt the early bubbles was where my placenta is.
I'm not sure if it was feeling the actual baby move or feeling the growth though who knows. What I definitely know is it wasn't wind!

We know our own bodies, if people don't want to believe it let them think what they want!

PS this is my first pregnancy too!

I felt first at 16 weeks. Second at 11.5 weeks. I know the difference between fluttery baby movement and wind.

When I.had 12 week scan I said to.sonographer it was moving around (with dc2) she put the probe on and it was.

felt this one at around 10 weeks when i was scrunched up in position and I got poked, now am 14 weeks and feel it move at least once a day when I am "tuned in" as they say.

re size - remember that while they measure the baby as being 6.5cm for instance, that is just crown of the head to the bottom, there are the legs too which could double that measurement ;)

i too don't like it being inferred that ladies are wrong, by the MW, cons, public, or indeed on here when people have no reason to lie