Fetal Movements & Behaviour

I was the first sonographer who started researching on the fetal handedness , to predict the fetal handedness ( right handed or left handed ) based on biophysical study and some family history back in 1985.The developmental origins of behavioural asymmetries.

I was correlating the fetal right and left thumb sucking,left and right arms and legs  movements legs and the parents handedness and i used to keep a table and ask parents to keep me informed after the delivery I Kept a record and consent forms and checked with the parents up to 2 years of the baby age. Many papers were published after 1985 and I kept my research paper  in my files . Fetal behaviour is fascinating subject. Let us take the fetal movements and fetal activity and ask the question.

Is it true that some fetuses and genders are more active than others?

 Women in their first pregnancy usually notice fetal movements a few weeks later than those in subsequent pregnancies, but it is not clear if number of pregnancies affects detection of fetal movements later in gestation. Other factors, like position of the placenta and maternal body weight, may play a role. Although these may add variation to perceptions of fetal movement, studies using objective measures of fetal movements (like ultrasound or Doppler transducers) do consistently find that some fetuses are more active than others.

That is, when researchers measure fetal activity at several time points during pregnancy, they find that fetuses that are very active at one time point continue to be very active at later time points. 

Most studies have found that fetal movements aren’t a reliable predictor of infant sex. For example, two longitudinal studies (measuring fetal activity at several time points during pregnancy), one conducted in both Maryland and Peru and the other from the Netherlands. found no difference in fetal activity patterns between males and females.

The studies have found that, on average, boys are more active than girls in toddlerhood. For example,this study  found no difference in activity level between male and female fetuses or as newborns but did find that boys were more active at 1 year of age and tended to be more active at 2 years.However, this difference doesn’t seem to trace back to fetal life and may be shaped at least in part by cultural expectations.

Can fetal activity predict a baby’s temperament?

 A link between fetal activity and postnatal temperament has been observed in multiple studies. Here are a few of the most interesting ones:

• More fetal movements might mean that a baby will cry more.A K study.asked pregnant moms to keep 1-hour diaries of fetal movements, classifying each one as weak or strong, in the morning and evening for 3 days at 37 weeks of pregnancy. The moms then completed 24-hour diaries of their baby’s’ behavior at 1, 6, and 12 weeks postpartum.

• Strong fetal movements didn’t correlate to later baby behavior, but the number of weak movements did. Fetuses that had more of those weak movements in pregnancy (versus those that had fewer weak movements) ended up fussing and crying more in infancy. On the bright side, fetal movements weren’t correlated to sleeping patterns or feeding behavior.

• More fetal movements might indicate that a baby is more likely to be more active, unadaptable, and unpredictable. Janet DiPietro of Johns Hopkins has been studying fetal development for more than 20 years, including several studies of this question of what fetal activity can tell us about our children before their birth. One of the first, published in 1996, found that more active fetuses became babies that were “more difficult, unpredictable, unadaptable, and active,” based on maternal questionnaires at 3 and 6 months of age.

• Babies that move more in pregnancy might be less easily frustrated at 1 year and more independent at 2 years. Another study from Janet DiPietro’s lab included behavioral assessments at 1 and 2 years of age. In one test, the 1-year-old babies watched as a fun-looking toy was placed behind a Plexiglass barrier, out of their reach, and the researchers noted how distressed they were by this set-up (banging on the glass, etc.
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• vs. moving on to something else). In another, the babies were simply strapped into a car seat, a familiar scenario that most of us know can produce frustration in a baby. At age 2, the children were observed playing in their homes while the mothers were instructed to sit close by but to act too busy to interact with their toddlers.
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• There was a correlation between having more fetal activity and being less upset about the 1-year-old tests and playing more independently of mom at age 2. There was also an interesting association with sex in this study. At age 1, boys who were more active in utero were also more active toddlers; however, girls who were more active in utero were the opposite – less active as toddlers.

 These studies are specifically trying to separate out fetal movements from many other sources of variation. They look at many babies and use mathematical models to identify patterns in the group. Many researchers also indicated these facts;

• It’s normal to feel strong fetal movements in the evening hours. In one study, moms reported feeling an average of 4 strong movements per hour in the morning and 12 per hour in the evening.

• Fetuses that were observed to be sucking their right thumb during ultrasounds were more likely to be right-handed at 10-12 years of age.
• Maternal cortisol levels during pregnancy were associated with more fetal movements and greater amplitude of movements during the third trimester. 

• When pregnant moms participated in a guided imagery relaxation exercise, which resulted in physiological signs of relaxation in the mom’s (lower heart rate, respiration rate, and skin conductance), fetal movements also decreased.

References:

1. Hijazi, Z. R. & East, C. E. Factors affecting maternal perception of fetal movement.  Gynecol. Surv.64, 489–497; quiz 499 (2009).
2. Gillieson, M., Dunlap, H., Nair, R. & Pilon, M. Placental site, parity, and date of quickening.  Gynecol.64, 44–45 (1984).
3. Tuffnell, D. J., Cartmill, R. S. & Lilford, R. J. Fetal movements; factors affecting their perception.  J. Obstet. Gynecol. Reprod. Biol.39, 165–167 (1991).
4. DiPietro, J. A. et al.What does fetal movement predict about behavior during the first two years of life?  Psychobiol. 40, 358–371 (2002).
5. DiPietro, J. A., Hodgson, D. M., Costigan, K. A., Hilton, S. C. & Johnson, T. R. Fetal neurobehavioral development. Child Dev.67, 2553–2567 (1996).
6. Groome, L. J. et al.Spontaneous motor activity in the perinatal infant before and after birth: stability in individual differences.  Psychobiol. 35, 15–24 (1999).
7. Eaton, W. O. & Saudino, K. J. Prenatal activity level as a temperament dimension? Individual differences and developmental functions in fetal movement. Infant Behav. Dev.15, 57–70 (1992).
8. DiPietro, J. A. et al.Fetal neurobehavioral development: a tale of two cities.  Psychol. 40, 445–456 (2004).
9. Robles de Medina, P. G., Visser, G. H. A., Huizink, A. C., Buitelaar, J. K. & Mulder, E. J. H. Fetal behaviour does not differ between boys and girls. Early Hum. Dev.73, 17–26 (2003).
10. St James-Roberts, I. & Menon-Johansson, P. Predicting infant crying from fetal movement data: an exploratory study. Early Hum. Dev.54, 55–62 (1999).
11. Hepper, P. G., Wells, D. L. & Lynch, C. Prenatal thumb sucking is related to postnatal handedness. Neuropsychologia43, 313–315 (2005).
12. DiPietro, J. A., Kivlighan, K. T., Costigan, K. A. & Laudenslager, M. L. Fetal motor activity and maternal cortisol.  Psychobiol.51, 505–512 (2009).
13. DiPietro, J. A., Costigan, K. A., Nelson, P., Gurewitsch, E. D. & Laudenslager, M. L. Fetal responses to induced maternal relaxation during pregnancy.  Psychol.77, 11–19 (2008).

STEVE RAMSEY, PHD – CALGARY – ALBERTA