Pregnant women love to feel their infants’ movements’ in-utero. Fetal movements affirm there is an active life growing within them. These movements also help the mother-to-be feel connected to her infant. Fathers-to-be, who cannot feel the other effects of pregnancy that their partners experience, can feel their infant’s movements when their baby kicks, punches and bounces around in the mother’s womb. Often expectant parents, especially the mother, can feel a rhythmic jumping or twitching feeling. That is the motion of the fetus having hiccups in the womb. Baby hiccups during pregnancy are a perfectly normal phenomenon.
Fetal hiccups may begin in the late first and the early second trimester of a pregnancy, but the mother cannot feel them yet at that point. By the third trimester, however, these hiccups can definitely be felt, although when they are first experienced the mother may not know exactly what these new movements are. Some babies hiccup intermittently, some every day and others several times a day. All of these are ranges of normal for fetal hiccups. Late in pregnancy hiccups can actually be seen, as they cause movement all through the mother’s belly. Hiccups are harmless to the fetus and actually are seen as a sign of good fetal health.
The diaphragm is the name of the muscle that helps people breathe. Hiccups occur when the diaphragm forcefully contracts unexpectedly. Limited research has been done on the phenomena of fetal hiccups but they are generally believed to occur when the fetus breathes in or drinks amniotic fluid. When the fluid exits and enters the undeveloped lungs, the small diaphragm will contract. The result of a series of these contractions is a case of hiccups in the womb. Baby hiccups during pregnancy are almost always felt by a mother-to-be at least once during her pregnancy. Many women feel their baby experience these fetal hiccups daily.
Some mothers experience anxiety about feeling baby hiccups during pregnancy because in some extreme cases large amounts of hiccupping by the fetus may be linked to umbilical cord compression. New mothers particularly need to mention their baby’s hiccups to their obstetrician so they can be assured that all is well with the baby. Others worry that hiccupping hurts the baby but that is not so. Hiccupping is not uncomfortable for unborn babies, as it is for grownups.
Baby hiccups during pregnancy have been observed on many ultrasounds. Some doctors and scientists suggest that this rhythmic workout for the diaphragm may help strengthen it and help prepare the little lungs and diaphragm for breathing when the baby is born. They also can help regulate the baby’s heart rate. Hiccups are a fetal reflex that is also dependent on the complete development of the baby’s central nervous system. Once the nervous system has developed enough, hiccups can begin. Once they begin, they can grow stronger week by week until birth. May infants continue to experience hiccups after birth for a few months. Some mothers have reported that their infants hiccup the same amount after birth as they did in-utero.
If a mother-to-be is concerned that her baby is having too many episodes of hiccups, she can begin to jot down a record of them to share with her doctor. By writing down the number of occurrences per day, the length of the episode, and what she is doing at the time or has eaten prior to the episode and sharing this information with the doctor, she can be reassured that her baby’s hiccups are normal and can just enjoy the experience as another sign of the precious new life developing within her.