• Interact with your baby through fetal movement

  Fetal movement is the first communication mama has with the baby in her belly!
  Through fetal movement, mama can check if the baby is fine or not and can talk with him.
  The baby loves hearing mama talk and playing with her.
  So enjoy the precious time you can interact with your baby in the belly.

  Check fetal movement

  Fetal movement is one means of making sure that the baby is growing fine. If you've been feeling fetal movement but then go for a whole day without feeling any, for example, it's probably good to go to the hospital and get checked just in case.
  Also, once you get to around weeks 32-35 of pregnancy, baby's sleep time and wake time will settle into a rhythm. If you do a fetal movement count every day in which you record how long it takes for the baby to move 10 times, you can check more closely whether the baby is growing fine or not.

  How to do a fetal movement count

  1. Do it every day, after a meal or before going to sleep, when mama is relaxed
  2. Lie down on your left side
  3. Measure how many minutes it takes for baby to move 10 times

  ★If things seem different than usual, or if you could verify fetal movement before and now you can't feel it at all, it's probably a good idea to go to the hospital and discuss it just in case.

  It's OK if there's a time with no fetal movement

  Once you start feeling fetal movement, when there is none you may feel concerned. But baby has a time when he's sleeping in the belly and a time when he's moving around. Babies seem to sleep and wake on an approximately 60 minute cycle. If an hour goes by and you feel no fetal movement at all, head to the hospital.

  Communication with baby

  The fact that you became able to feel fetal movement is proof that baby has grown fine. Around the time you start to feel fetal movement, the nerves will be mostly developed and the sense of hearing will be completely formed. Touch your belly, talk to the baby, listen to music, and try to communicate lots with the baby! 　When mama's action gets through to the baby and you can feel a response, there is no greater joy. We recommend the "kicking game," a kind of game in which you communicate with the bay through fetal movement. How about trying it at least once?

  ★Kicking game

  In the kicking game, start out with simple things at first, and once you succeed, advance to the next step. While some babies may respond right away, others may take a long time to do so. Even if your baby doesn't respond, be patient! 　It is getting through to the baby just fine. Choose a place and time when you can relax, and do it patiently 2-3 times a day, for more than a month.

  1. If baby kicks, pat that place on your belly while saying "Kick." In another minute or two, he'll kick again, so pat that same place while saying "Kick." When you do that, he'll start kicking the same place over and over.
  2. After you've repeated the first exercise for several days, next pat a different place than where the baby kicks and say "Kick." When you do that, the baby will kick the place mama patted. If you repeat this for 1-2 weeks, the baby will start kicking in basically the same area where mama pats.
  3. Once you get used to this, pat your belly two times while saying "Kick, kick." When you do that, the baby will respond by kicking two times. He'll start kicking back the same number of times as mama pats.