Promoting Fetal Movement Monitoring: Improving Birth Outcomes

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The purpose of the study is to find out the best way to help pregnant women keep track of their baby's movements. During pregnancy, feeling your baby's movements is normal. A decrease in movement can indicate potential problems with your baby's well-being. This study will see if daily electronic reminders and kick count charts help women to better track their baby's movements over the last weeks of pregnancy.

Detailed Description
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Pregnant women coming to the Hoffman and Associates or the Center for Advanced Fetal Care at Mercy Medical Center for their prenatal care and delivery may join this study. You must be able to receive daily text messages on your cell phone or have access to a computer to check daily emails in order to take part in the study. It is expected that 80 pregnant women will take part in this study. The study will end within a month after the delivery of your baby. There is some evidence in the published literature suggesting that maternal monitoring of fetal movement may improve fetal mortality rates and infant health. Kick counting is a specific strategy to monitor fetal movement. Kick counts are typically performed in a daily 10-minute increment or until a specified number of kicks has been counted. In general, keeping track of kick counts begins in the 28th week of pregnancy, or earlier for high-risk pregnancies. Keeping track of kick counts allows the mother to monitor her baby's normal activity pattern and to identify when the baby's movement may decrease. This study will be conducted to examine whether daily electronic reminders, sent using either cell phone text messages or computer-based emails, delivered in conjunction with the use of a paper-based kick count chart, increases the likelihood of completion of the paper-based kick count chart as well as knowledge regarding use of kick count methods compared to the paper-based kick count chart alone.

Official Title
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Promoting Fetal Movement Monitoring: Improving Birth Outcomes

Conditions
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Fetal Kick Counting

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Daily electronic reminders


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: 24-28 weeks pregnant able to receive daily text messages or emails 18 years of age or older willing to sign informed consent Exclusion Criteria: -unable to sign informed consent

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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Female

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Daily electronic reminders<br>Women in the intervention arm will be sent either daily text messages on the weekdays on their cell phone or emails on the weekdays reminding them to track kick counts on the chart. | Other: Daily electronic reminders<br>* Women in the intervention arm will be sent either daily text messages on the weekdays on their cell phone or emails on the weekdays reminding them to track kick counts on the chart<br>|
| No Intervention: Education only<br>All women enrolled in the trial will receive a paper-based kick count chart, will be educated in the use of the kick count chart, and will be instructed to keep track of their fetal movements on a daily basis. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Completion of Paper Chart | Completion of kick count charts at follow-up prenatal visits | 36 weeks pregnant-1 month status post delivery | 
| Knowledge of kick counting post delivery | Baseline questionnaire, including knowledge questions regarding monitoring baby's movement and kick count methods can be compared to post-education kick count knowledge questionnaire, week 36 questionnaire and end of study questionnaire | 36 weeks pregnant-1 month status post delivery | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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fetal movement, pregnancy