Baby kicks in the womb and what they tell you

Most women first feel movement somewhere between 16 and 24 weeks, and by the third trimester it settles into a pattern you recognise. There is no normal number of kicks. What matters is your baby's own pattern, and any clear drop in it needs checking the same day.

When do babies start kicking?

The NHS puts the first movements between 16 and 24 weeks of pregnancy. If this is your first baby, expect the later end of that range, because you have nothing to compare the sensation with. Second time round, many Mamas recognise it weeks earlier.

Where your placenta sits matters too. An anterior placenta lies between your baby and the front of your abdomen and muffles everything, so the early flutters can be faint or missed entirely.

By 24 weeks you should be feeling something. If you are not, say so at your antenatal appointment rather than assuming your baby is quiet by nature. That is a check worth doing. If you are earlier than all this and still watching for confirmation, our guide to the early signs of pregnancy covers the first weeks.

What do the movements actually feel like?

Early on, almost nothing like a kick. Women describe popcorn, a goldfish turning over, wind, a muscle twitch low in the belly. First-timers routinely mistake it for a dodgy lunch.

Later it becomes unmistakable. Kicks, elbows, a long slow stretch that pushes your whole bump out of shape, and rhythmic hiccups that go on for ten minutes at a time. Hiccups are normal and do not count as movements when you are judging the pattern.

You may notice your baby stirs at a familiar voice, a bass line, or the slam of the rubbish chute. That responsiveness is part of normal development, alongside the muscle and joint growth all that kicking supports. Our trimester-by-trimester timeline sets out what else is happening at each stage.

Where on your bump will you feel them?

Early movements sit low, just below or around the navel, which is another reason they get mistaken for digestion. As your baby grows, the range spreads across the whole bump.

Once your baby settles head down in the third trimester, the feet end up under your ribs. Those are the kicks that wake you. You may also see the movement from the outside by then, a knee or heel travelling across the skin.

How many kicks count as normal?

There is no target number, and you should be wary of anyone who gives you one. The NHS states plainly that there is no set number of normal movements, and that your baby's own routine is the measure.

A Cochrane review of fetal movement counting found the evidence too limited to recommend any particular counting method for routine use. So do not spend your pregnancy chasing a target on a chart. Learn the shape of your baby's day instead: the quiet stretch mid-morning, the party at 10pm, the reaction to cold water.

Some clinics still hand out a kick chart. Use it if yours does, since a written record makes a change easier to spot and easier to describe over the phone.

How do you keep track of a pattern in a working week?

You will not notice much while standing on a packed train or walking to the MRT in the afternoon heat. Movement registers when you are still, which in a Singapore working day may be twice.

Pick a quiet half hour and keep it. After dinner works for many people: lie on your left side with the aircon on, hand on the bump, no phone. Do it at roughly the same time daily and the pattern becomes obvious within a week.

• Write the time your baby's active spell starts and roughly how long it runs. A note on your phone is enough.
• Count during the active spell, not during the quiet one. Babies sleep for 20 to 40 minutes at a stretch.
• Do not use a cold drink, sugar or a poke to force movement before you decide whether something is wrong.
• Take the record to your antenatal visits. It gives your doctor something specific to work with.

That last point matters more than any app. Gentle movement, walking and pregnancy exercise also tend to make you more aware of your own body, which helps.

What should you do if the movements slow down?

Go in the same day. Not tomorrow, not at your next appointment.

Call the delivery suite of the hospital where you are booked to deliver. KK Women's and Children's Hospital and the National University Hospital both staff theirs around the clock, including weekends and public holidays, and you do not need a referral or an appointment to ring and describe what has changed. A reduction in movement is one of the few things in pregnancy that is treated as urgent by default.

Do not try to provoke movement first. Cold water, chocolate, lying down for an hour and shining a torch at your bump are all ways of losing time. Do not reach for a home doppler either, for the reason the NHS gives: a heartbeat you find yourself can be falsely reassuring.

If it happens again a week later, go in again. Mothers often hesitate the second time because the first check was normal and they feel they are making a fuss. Repeated episodes matter more, not less. Nobody at the delivery suite will think badly of you.

What happens when you go in?

Knowing this makes the call easier. Expect a midwife to take your history, check your blood pressure and urine, and feel your bump.

Then comes a CTG, a belt monitor that records your baby's heart rate and your contractions for twenty minutes or so. Many units add a scan to check growth and the fluid around your baby, and ACOG describes this family of tests among the standard ways of checking on a baby's wellbeing. Most of the time everything is normal and you go home within a couple of hours.

Start the hospital bag early too, so an unplanned trip in is only a trip in. Save the number now, before you need it. Put the delivery suite line in your phone under the hospital's name, and tell your partner or whoever is likely to be with you where it is. At 2am, with a bump that has felt wrong since lunchtime, nobody wants to be searching a hospital website.