The nine-month journey your baby goes on before birth is nothing short of a miracle. It takes just 38 weeks for a fertilised egg to grow into a baby. However, we say that a human pregnancy is 40 weeks long.
This is because doctors calculate the 'estimated date of delivery' of the baby from the beginning of the mother's last menstrual period - on average, two weeks before fertilisation. Only about a third of all fertilised eggs grow into a baby: most are lost before they are three weeks old.
Most pregnant women start to feel their baby's movements sometime during the second trimester (13-27 weeks) of their pregnancy. If your placenta is at the front of your womb it may take a little longer, as the placenta cushions you from the baby kicking.
Try not to feel anxious about these early movements as all babies are different and mums-to-be will feel their babies at different points towards the end of their second trimester.
Later in pregnancy, your baby will take up all the space in your womb. He should still move as often as before and the movements should still be strong, but the foetal movement will feel different because of increasingly restricted space.
Many babies develop a pattern to their movements, maybe being more active after a meal, in the early morning or late at night. They are all individuals and you will get to know your baby's pattern.
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