So anyway I've just rediscovered my worried side - welcome to motherhood!......

[Enaj30]

I am 20 weeks pregnant today and on Tuesday I am 98% sure I felt the baby kick. Anyhoo, I haven't felt anything much since and today I decided to get myself into a right state about it - didn't help that I had two totally thoughtless colleagues talking about how someone they knew lost babies at a later stage :-(. As I work in a hospital I thought I would pop over to the assessment unit and ask to be seen. The midwife was lovely and totally put my mind at rest, turns out I have an anteria placenta so this is the reason why I am feeling reduced movement and baby was laid there on the scan with his/her arms behind its head. It's little heartbeat was off like the clappers!

Just wanted to share as was stressing but now I can enjoy the weekend!

I did the same around 20 weeks, had felt very little movement and went to assessment unit and I also have an anterior placenta.. She could hear him moving on doppler but I couldn't feel it. I'm now 33 weeks and have been getting strong movement for a while now. Glad they put your mind at rest :)

I was not seen at 20 weeks when I called for the very reason that at 20 weeks movement is rarely patterned and can/will just vanish for a day. I suffer from anxiety and found the time lines given on the Count The Kicks website (and their app/wristband) so useful.

Unfortunately the flips ide of genuine awareness is an increase in maternal anxiety. Later in my pregnancy it really flared up :( I was lying on my side up to 5 hr per day obsessed with kicks thanks to some triggering comments (about what we "should" do, not loss) and when I posted here people misunderstood and suggested I was advocating not counting at all which wasn't true.

You definitely did the right thing by checking with the midwife not looking online! :)
I rely on Count The Kicks and hcp. Otherwise you get people telling scary stories or being too lax and neither is good!

Btw even with a normal placenta many people only start feeling movement 20-22 weeks!

I know how you feel OP, my DD was a quiet one. She was breech with her feet up by her head from about 25 weeks and I had anterior placenta too so I never got the really strong kicks. My midwife told me that whenever I hadn't felt baby move for a while to go somewhere quiet, relax and focus on baby, if still nothing then come in to be checked out.

I think with some babies you just don't notice it as much whilst you're busy going about your day. As you get further along, you should start noticing more of a pattern.

Anterior placenta is normal. The placenta can be anterior, posterior, fundal or lateral. It just describes where in the uterus it is positioned. But an anterior placenta does dampen down the babies kicks because it is towards the front of your tummy where you normally feel most of the movement earlier on in pregnancy.

Sorry Cold I meant "usual" as it is more usual to have a posterior.
My key point is on forums everyone freaks pit if patterned movement isn't felt by 20 (or even as early as 18) weeks and often it's suggested that the only 'healthy' reason is anterior placenta. Actually many people don't feel movement regardless of placenta, until 22-24 weeks, and patterned movement isn't expected until 23-28 weeks.
Over the months on this forum I have seen this assumption really worry many people.

Count The Kicks and the NHS website have clear time lines which can relieve fear, they also promote checking regularly.

Absolutely squizita. I didn't feel anything until almost 24 weeks.

Also, important to remember that with your first baby, you often don't feel definite kicks until after 20 weeks, whereas with subsequent pregnancies, movements are often felt earlier. But of course, the position of placenta will still have an influence on this as well.

Not so sure about posterior placenta being more common, I find it is quite 50/50 at work but not that I've ever counted!

That's interesting Cold ... I was just repeating what my GP said (who probably read it in a book as I doubt she did ob gyn work pre GP)!

Ah right, yes most probably! I suppose it might be the case that posterior is slightly more common but would imagine talking a pretty small difference. I have definitely never noticed an obvious difference and I've scanned hundreds and hundreds!

I'm not sure what she specialised in tbh she's lovely but she does like to read up bless her!

Did a bit of googling....found one study (from 1998). Posterior placenta 45%, anterior placenta 42%.

so maybe that's what she read! Well you learn something new every day