An active baby is a healthy baby. You should feel your baby's first movements, called "quickening," between weeks 16 and 25 of your pregnancy. If this is your first pregnancy, you may not feel your baby move until closer to 25 weeks. By the second pregnancy, some women start to feel movements as early as 13 weeks. The movement is your baby exercising to promote healthy bone and joint development. All pregnancies and all babies are different, but it's unlikely that lots of activity means anything other than your baby is growing in size and strength.
Fetal movement counting is a way to check the health of a woman's unborn baby (fetus). It's often called kick counting. It's done by counting the number of kicks you feel from your baby in the uterus in a certain time period. By 20 weeks gestation, most women are able to feel their baby's movements. Fetal kicking serves several purposes. The first is that it gives muscles and limbs exercise. It also shows response to stimuli and, as the current study suggests, helps the brain make connections for spatial sense. Doctors still aren't sure what the changes in frequency of movement means.
Two variables determine the nature of a pregnant woman's bump. The first is the size of the baby. It is true that on average baby boys weigh more at birth than baby girls, and so this could make the bump for a boy slightly bigger. But this small difference in weight does not change the shape of the bump. One study, published in 2001 in the journal Human Fetal and Neonatal Movement Patterns, found that boys may move around more in the womb than girls.
You will likely be able to identify your baby's movement, but gas bubbles are more likely to cause abdominal pain. Fetal movement may be uncomfortable but generally not painful. Though it can vary from one pregnancy to another, on average others around you can begin to feel a fetus move around the end of the second trimester or near the beginning of the third trimester (weeks 28 to 32). It helps if they put their hands on your belly at the right moment and in the right spot.
Just as we adults want to do something when excited, babies kick and breath fast when they are too excited. It simply means that she is happy and excited about something. It can be due to something or someone that she has seen or a result of being able to do something that she wants to do. At 32 weeks your baby's movements will be at their peak. Afterwards, the frequency of your baby's movements will stay roughly the same until you go into labour. This may be the most exciting time for feeling your baby move.
You're more likely to feel baby move when you're in a quiet position, either sitting or lying down.
