You may feel your baby move this week -- but don’t worry if you do not. Fetal movement -- known as "quickening" -- is normally detectable by the mother any time between the 16th and the 20th week of pregnancy. So if you can’t feel your baby yet, you will very soon.

Quickening feels like tiny, butterfly-like fluttering -- movement that is so subtle you may not realize what it is at first. Later on, your baby’s movements will become more pronounced and unmistakable: you’ll feel kicks, jabs -- even rhythmic hiccups. These first movements are like tiny, infrequent whispers, but once you become aware of them, you will know exactly what they are.

Whether it occurs this week or a month from now, the first time you feel your baby move is one of the highlights of pregnancy. As your pregnancy progresses, your baby’s movements will be so frequent and pronounced that you may take them for granted, but this first signal of your baby’s existence is an important milestone. Call your partner, your best friend or your mother and tell them what happened. Record the event in your baby journal. Make a special dinner for yourself and your partner, and toast with a glass of ginger ale or sparkling cider. You are experiencing one of life’s miracles, and it deserves to be celebrated.

Of course, your baby has been moving for some time, but he is now big enough for you to be able to feel it. Inside your womb, he is doing somersaults, rolls and flips, and his nervous system is now developed enough to coordinate these athletics. As of this week, your baby’s muscle movements are voluntary. His arms and legs are fully developed, and all his joints are operative. His bones are growing increasingly hard. This is a particularly active time for your baby, as he still has plenty of room to stretch and move: as time goes on and he grows larger, his quarters will become tighter.

If you are going to have an amniocentesis, it is likely that your health care provider has already scheduled your appointment, as this test is usually conducted between the 16th and 18th week of pregnancy. Your medical provider has probably not advised you to have an amnio unless you are over 35 years old, have a high-risk pregnancy, or have had an abnormal triple-screen test result.

Because the risk of having a child with Down syndrome increases with the age of the mother, physicians usually offer amniocentesis or Chorionic villus sampling to women 35 and older (CVS is usually done earlier than an aminiocentesis.). At this point in pregnancy, there is sufficient fluid surrounding the baby to make amniocentesis possible; it is also early enough to terminate the pregnancy if that is what the parents decide.

If either you or your partner is over 35, or if either of you have a family history of genetic disease, you will probably also be referred to a genetic counselor. A genetic counselor will consider the age, health and genetic background of you and your partner and educate you about possible risks.

-- Connie Matthiessen is a former staff writer for the Center for Investigative Reporting who has written widely on health and medical issues. -- Chris Woolston, MS, is a contributing editor to Consumer Health Interactive. A former staff writer for Hippocrates magazine, he has written for Health, WebMD, and other journals. He is also the co-author of Generation Extra Large: Rescuing Our Children from the Epidemic of Obesity (Perseus paperback, 2006).

References

First published August 15, 2005
Last updated February 28, 2008
Copyright © 2005 Consumer Health Interactive

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