03 Robin Cronin and Billie Bradford
Channel: Virtual Midwives
Date: 2022-05-13

VIDM 2022 ::  Women’s knowledge and perception of fetal movements during late pregnancy: Findings from an Aotearoa - New Zealand survey

Facilitator: Belle Bruce
Background: Consensus-based guidelines encourage midwives to inform women about normal fetal movements and when to report concerns, despite limited information to guide clinical practice. 
Method: We undertook an online New Zealand-wide survey of women at 28 weeks gestation. 
Results: Data were available on 1334 participants. Fetal movements were stronger in the evening (950, 71.2%) and ‘busy times’ were more common in the evening (937, 70.2%). During the last week episode of ‘wild-crazy’ fetal movements (1069, 80.1%) and fetal hiccups (855, 64.1%) were reported by the majority. Two-thirds (857, 64.2%) had received information about what fetal movements to expect and 58.0% (774) would like more information. Midwives were the most trusted source of information (942, 70.6%). Most women (1113, 83.1%) had been concerned about fetal movements.
Conclusions: Nearly half the pregnant women surveyed would like more fetal movement information.