Promoting Fetal Movement Monitoring: Improving Birth Outcomes

Pregnant women coming to the Hoffman and Associates or the Center for Advanced Fetal Care at Mercy Medical Center for their prenatal care and delivery may join this study. You must be able to receive daily text messages on your cell phone or have access to a computer to check daily emails in order to take part in the study. It is expected that 80 pregnant women will take part in this study. The study will end within a month after the delivery of your baby.

There is some evidence in the published literature suggesting that maternal monitoring of fetal movement may improve fetal mortality rates and infant health. Kick counting is a specific strategy to monitor fetal movement. Kick counts are typically performed in a daily 10-minute increment or until a specified number of "kicks" has been counted. In general, keeping track of kick counts begins in the 28th week of pregnancy, or earlier for high-risk pregnancies. Keeping track of kick counts allows the mother to monitor her baby's normal activity pattern and to identify when the baby's movement may decrease.

This study will be conducted to examine whether daily electronic reminders, sent using either cell phone text messages or computer-based emails, delivered in conjunction with the use of a paper-based kick count chart, increases the likelihood of completion of the paper-based kick count chart as well as knowledge regarding use of kick count methods compared to the paper-based kick count chart alone.