Can hiccups be bad?

[MissTwister]

I'm 31 weeks and over the last week or so my baby has taken to hiccuping a good few times a day for about 5-15 minutes at a time.

I've read a few places online that this can be a sign of cord compression which is is obviously bad and can lead to stillbirth. When I mentioned it to my MW she just laughed.

However, again tonight I have read that after 30 weeks the baby should only hiccup infrequently, not every day, and certainly not 3 or more times a day. It said if this happens to immediately go to labour ward for checking! I'm especially anxious as I've had a perception of less movement too although had this checked and they said it was fine.

I don't know whether to be worried about this frequent hiccuping (added to my movement perception) or whether its normal. Does anyone have any experience?

Augustrose I am so sorry for your loss, that is absolutely awful.

Did you have inkling that something may have been wrong?

So sorry again

No not really, I think that's what made it so difficult to understand. The only thing was that he measured small at 34 and 36 weeks by tape measure - I now know this was an indication and should have been scanned as my first two babies were classed as small but not tiny.

I am stuck between not scaring people but wanting to make sure every baby is OK, so I always so go to the hospital and don't leave until you are happy.

August it is so important to share your experiences, I am sure you agree if it stops someone else having to suffer the same pain then it is always worth scaring a few others on the way.

I am so so sorry for your loss once again.

You are a brave and strong lady

I know! Her reaction was so weird. My husband was with me and he agreed she looked at me as if I'd said my baby might be an alien! She almost backed away....

Sorry for your loss August Rose that's truly awful. Did you have any scans after the 20 weeks?

I pushed for a scan and am having one later today. Apparently they should have given me one last time I came in and they didn't follow protocol. The MW wasn't happy - doctor didn't even see me or write notes in folder.

Good luck for today Twister, let us know how you get on

All 3 of mine hiccuped a lot, and all perfectly healthy

Thank you, I didn't have a scan after 20 weeks with DC4 - I did have with DC3 and she was growing fine, DC5 I had lots of scans for obvious reasons.

One problem is that visits are not recorded and therefore no record of a previous concern is made - I'm sure everything will be fine and the scan will go well, please let us know how you get on.

An update. Baby bang on for growth, no cord issues detected - even my low lying placenta has moved out the way! So all positive.

Only neg - we decided that maybe we did want to maybe find out sex after all but baby wouldn't play ball and sat with foot in way!

Both of my babies hiccuped a lot, and are totally fine. They were both hiccupy as little babies though...

My OB suggested a theory when I mentioned it - babies practise sowing and breathing in utero and the amniotic fluid can irritate the diagram a little causing the hiccups. Only healthy babies who are well looked after in utero (he gave me the technical name for that but I forget) have the energy for things like that, so it's a good sign.

Not googling things is good advice though! Really dangerous!!!

Sowing?! Swallowing!

I had a very hiccupy baby (think up to eight bouts a day) and also Googled and found the "cord compression" link.

As luck would have it, I was in charge of the journals collection in a medical library at the time, so I looked up the articles. I'm not a clinician so not entirely qualified to interpret them properly, but I don't recall anything alarming. And the articles are old, and nothing recent has confirmed a link between hiccups and cord compression, which suggests there's no real link.

DD is now nearly 4 and was a very hiccupy baby. She's still prone to them now

MissTwister so pleased everything was good with the baby :)

Just going to resurrect this. I called the community office today after getting 4 bouts of hiccups since last night which is unusual for me. The midwife told me there is currently some research being done (but didn't say what for) and the advice now is to go and be monitored, specifically with the advice 'dont let them fob you off, they will try'. The midwife at the day unit didn't quite see it that way and just said 'hiccups are hiccups' which made me pretty annoyed. She monitored me and said the checklist had been met after 10 mins. All fine, baby was pretty wriggly but can't quite put the cord thing out of my head.