Factors affecting maternal perceptions of fetal movements

Maternal perception of fetal movement is an important screening method for fetal well-being, as decreased fetal movement is associated with a range of pregnancy pathologies and poor pregnancy outcomes. An understanding of factors that may affect perception could help clinicians to determine the importance of maternal reports of decreased fetal movement. This review considers factors that may affect maternal perception of fetal movement and the sensitivity of maternal perception of fetal movements in comparison with ultrasound and other objective methods of movement detection. There is conflicting evidence on whether parity, gestational age, overweight and obesity, and placental location affect perception. This may be related to the small sample sizes of available studies and lack of consistent definitions of factors that may affect the ability of mothers to perceive movement. There is some evidence that psychological factors and duration of fetal movement may affect perception, and that strong movements and those including trunk movement are more likely to be perceived. The proportion of fetal breathing movements that mothers perceive has not been investigated. Research is also lacking as to whether there needs to be contact of fetal part(s) with maternal structures for movement to be perceived, and whether fetal position, amniotic fluid volume, maternal position, sedatives, or other drugs affect movement perception. Target Audience: Obstetricians & Gynecologists, Family Physicians Learning Objectives: After completion of this article, the reader should be able to define variables that may affect a mother's ability to perceive fetal movements, describe different methods of fetal movement counting, and summarize how fetal movements may be related to fetal well-being