Feeling Like a Baby Kicking but Not Pregnant

Yes, You lot Can Experience Phantom Baby Kicks Long Later on Existence Pregnant—Here'due south Why They Happen

Some women say they can actually still experience baby kicks years after giving nascency. Here, experts break down the phenomenon of phantom kicks.

4 months later Chrissy Teigen opened upwardly about the heartbreaking loss of her baby boy, Jack, during her 2nd trimester, the star shed light on something people who've been pregnant sometimes experience: phantom baby kicks.

"My petty Jack would have been born this week so I'm a chip off," the star tweeted along with a video of what appeared to be little movements in her belly. "I truly experience kicks in my belly, but it'south not phantom." Soon enough, other women began pouring in with their experiences of false fetal movement—either subsequently a miscarriage or childbirth.

• RELATED: Chrissy Teigen Is Helping To Destigmatize Pregnancy Loss past Sharing Her Heartbreaking News And then Publicly

As crazy as it sounds, phantom babe kicks are real—and can occur long after a pregnancy. Here, we interruption downwards exactly what'southward going on.

What Are Phantom Kicks?

Phantom kicks later on nascence or pregnancy loss, or flutters that mimic fetal movements during pregnancy, are actually pretty normal and can happen days, months, or fifty-fifty years later.

According to a 2019 survey of 197 women who had previously been pregnant conducted past the Monash University in Australia, 40 percent of participants reported feeling phantom kicks after a existence pregnant. On average, the women felt what they described as "real kicks" or "flutters" for 6.8 years postpartum, though one woman reported feeling the sensation 28 years after giving nativity.

• RELATED: Quickening in Pregnancy: Feeling the First Fetal Kicks

An image of a adult female and her baby.

What Causes Phantom Kicks?

While these kicks can be attributed to a heightened awareness of what'southward going on in your body, gas, or your body recovering postpartum, there is simply a lack of data surrounding the feel and then experts can't explain it with 100 percent certainty.

"We all have sensations in our abdomens on and off, some more than than others, ordinarily related to [gastrointestinal] GI move and digestion," says Marjorie Greenfield, M.D., vice chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Case Western Reserve Academy School of Medicine in Cleveland and writer of The Working Woman'due south Pregnancy Volume. "I know personally that I have had sensations that 'if I didn't know better' I might think were kicks."

Some experts believe feeling phantom kicks afterwards pregnancy might fifty-fifty be similar to phantom missing limb pain, where someone might feel sensations in a torso function that's no longer there.

"There are other phantom movements/feelings/pain that many people feel when they have had a loss like loss of a limb," says Tamika Auguste, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Georgetown Academy School of Medicine and acting chair of Women'south and Infants' Services at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. "We also know that a woman tin can really think she is pregnant and have actual symptoms (swelling abdomen, perceived motion, loss of a period, etc.)."

In Teigen's instance, and in the case of other parents who may take experienced a loss, there may even be an emotional and physical component related to the trauma of a miscarriage or stillbirth.

• RELATED: How Virtual Back up Groups Helped Me Through an Isolating Miscarriage

"The listen and the body are not dissever entities and I am certain that an increased awareness of awareness due to grief, for example, could lead to more than sensations, and perchance even changes in GI movement," says Dr. Greenfield.

Is In that location Whatever Reason to Worry?

Almost probable no, though Dr. Auguste recommends discussing any worries with your wellness care provider.

"I don't call up a feeling of a baby kick is probable to correspond a serious physical medical condition that needs a workup unless there is pain or abdominal distension," says Dr. Greenfield.

And while in that location's probably nothing to be worried well-nigh physically, it'due south important to annotation that these phantom kicks could exacerbate the emotional aspects of pregnancy loss for some.

"Although we found no meaning association between phantom kicks and postnatal low or anxiety, our results advise that the influence of phantom kicks on mood should not exist neglected," the Australia researchers constitute. "Content analysis of women's responses to phantom kicks suggested that the feel could exacerbate symptoms of feet, specially in the case of stillbirth." That'due south why it's so important to encounter your doctor if you're concerned.

singletonsherep55.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.parents.com/parenting/moms/healthy-mom/phantom-baby-kicks-are-real-and-this-is-why-they-happen/