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Anterior Placenta Pads Fetal Movements

QUESTION

Dear Midwife,
I am 21 weeks pregnant, and am only 18, so am very cautious and worried about everything. I was told that you are supposed to feel your baby move a lot by now, to the point where it's even little kicks. I haven't felt a thing that I can accept as baby movement. Am I just not perceptive enough? Or is he really not kicking me?

Someone said it may be that he's just a very still baby, but in the ultrasounds he is always squirming around and they can never catch the right thing cause he's just so active. Even then, I can't feel it and the doctors say I should..

Should I be worried? Is it normal? Can I do something to feel him move more?

ANSWER

I would be willing to bet two cents (my max) that your placenta happened to "plant" in front (anteriorly), which is just fine. But what happens then is that the baby has to kick through the placenta, which acts like padding, for you to feel anything, and the baby is still too small to kick hard enough.

Usually by 22-23 weeks, the baby is big enough to kick around the edges of the placenta and that also solves the problem.

Do me a favor and ask your provider where the placenta is the next time you have a visit, and let me know either by writing back or coming to Live Chat in January. I want to know about my two cents!

If the placenta is in front, that explains why you aren't feeling kicks yet, but trust me, enjoy it while you can because your turn is coming soon!

-- Cynthia, CNM

Cynthia Flynn

Cynthia Flynn, CNM. PhD, is the General Director of the Family Health and Birth Center which provides prenatal, birth, postnatal, gynecological and primary health care to underserved women and their families in Washington, D.C. Recently Cynthia served as Associate Professor of Nursing at Seattle University. There she not only taught, but remained in full scope clinical midwifery practice at Valley Medical Center where she cared for pregnant and birthing women, and practices well-woman gynecology, family planning, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.

Cynthia founded Columbia Women's Clinic and Birth Center, where she took care of pregnant women and infants up to two weeks of age and attended both birth center and hospital births. Before Cynthia earned her CNM, she worked as a registered nurse in labor and delivery and postpartum and is a certified Doula and Doula trainer.