kickTrak counts your baby’s kicks in the womb |
Here’s one of those gadgets that seems to take advantage of new mothers. Or maybe it just takes advantage of those who need a little too much information. kickTrak can automatically count your baby’s kicks starting at 24 weeks and apparently give you a reliable way to track the movement pattern, and reduce the risk of stillbirth.
One other use is that it can be used at the onset of pregnancy as a rough countdown timer for your due date and can time your contractions when labor begins. Plus it has little tiny feet on the display screen. I’m not sure that this would really help prevent a stillbirth, but I’m just a dumb guy blog writer. More likely, this would be used by the overbearing sports father wanting to gauge the kid’s field-goal kicking abilities from day zero.
[Babykick] VIA [OhGizmo]
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Hi Conner,
Thanks for including KickTrak on your blog. I certainly don’t think you’re a “dumb guy blog writer” and can understand your initial uncertainty about the product – as kick counting isn’t a topic that most people know about without doing some research. kickTrak was created by an OB/GYN who wanted to make it easier for expecting moms to monitor fetal movement. It simply aids moms in counting the number of kicks, jabs, rolls and turns and monitors the time duration in between each movement. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that expectant mothers note the time it takes for their baby to complete ten movements, at approximately the same time each day when the baby is usually most active. In general, healthy babies should complete ten movements within two hours and most babies achieve ten movements in less than 15 minutes. Moms should alert their healthcare provider immediately if the baby’s normal pattern changes or if the baby takes more than two hours to complete ten movements as decreased fetal movement can indicate increased risk of complications.
Moms use kickTrak by pressing a button each time they feel the baby move during a kick counting session (once daily, as recommended by ACOG). It does not automatically detect each movement, but offers moms an easier way to track their babies’ movement instead of manually recording it using a pen and paper. Dr. Diep Nguyen, kickTrak’s creator, advocates counting kicks no matter if moms choose to use kickTrak to do it or not. Before she created kickTrak, Dr. Nguyen founded the BabyKick Alliance (www.babykickalliance.org), a nonprofit organization that offers free kick counting charts and educates parents and healthcare providers about the importance of kick counting.
Below is an additional resource for your readers that provides more info about kick counting. Public health advocacy groups in Miami and New Jersey have both found the monitoring of fetal movements to be a safe, easy and effective way to reduce infant mortality rates. While manually noting and charting kick counting is an option (and one that many mom-to-be use), kickTrak is a simple and effective way to help track these movements.
“Miami-Dade County Fetal Infant Mortality Review identifies counting fetal kicks as a valuable tool for pregnant women” Miami Medicine, April 2007 Issue. See pages 6 and 7: http://www.miamimed.com/mm/APRIL_2007.pdf
Thanks Conner! Happy New Year!
Carey