Kick-Counting Method Found to Reduce Fetal Mortality Rate

A pregnant woman could reduce the chances that her baby will be stillborn by taking time every night to make certain that she feels at least 10 kicks or some other movement within one hour, a researcher said.

Dr. Kathleen Piacquadio of the Naval Hospital in San Diego said a new “kick-count” method could significantly reduce the fetal mortality rate.

“It’s not by any means the answer to all the problem,” Piacquadio said, “but I think it has high potential to catch on.”

To do the kick count, a woman lies on her side every evening and counts how long it takes to feel the fetus move 10 times. If it takes more than one hour, the woman should immediately go to the hospital to be examined, she said.

“It’s a simple tool that anybody can do. You don’t need any special equipment for the moms to do this,” Piacquadio said.

During a recent meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Piacquadio reported the results of a study that found the technique reduced the fetal mortality rate fourfold.

“If you can count to 10 you can do the kick count,” she said. “You can increase the likelihood that your baby will have a good outcome. You can’t guarantee it 100%, but it’s a good tool.”

Women should do the count every day in the evening because that is when fetuses are most active, she said. In many cases it takes less than 15 minutes because the baby is so active, she said.

Piacquadio recommended women begin using the count 28 weeks into the pregnancy because that is when fetuses have developed enough to have the best chances of surviving if they have to be delivered early, she said.

Although Piacquadio acknowledged the method can lead to false alarms, she said it is worthwhile to potentially save the lives of some babies.

“Most of the time (women) come in and get reassured,” she said.

Many pregnant women are closely monitored because for some reason they are at high risk for miscarriages. But studies have shown that about 44% of fetal deaths occur among women considered at low risk. The new technique should help reduce that number, she said.

“We pick up babies that are in distress that wouldn’t be picked up otherwise,” she said. “This is for low-risk women, people who wouldn’t be picked up by traditional . . . techniques.”

For her study, Piacquadio asked more than 2,000 pregnant women who came into the hospital from November, 1985, to May, 1986, to do the kick count every day.

When a woman did not feel enough movements and came in to be checked, doctors conducted a series of tests of the fetus’ heart. If they found that the unborn child was in distress, the expectant mother either were admitted to the hospital for observation or delivered her child in an induced labor or through an emergency Caesarean section, she said.

Compared with another similar-sized group of women who did not use the count, the number of times doctors intervened in the pregnancy because they found a problem with the fetus tripled among the women who used the method, she said.

During the study period, during which 1,864 women had babies, the fetal mortality rate was 2.1 per 1,000 deliveries.