kickTrak Baby Kick Counter
By Andrew Liszewski
I understand that having your first child can be a stressful time for a new mother, and I’m not exactly thrilled when companies take advantage of that by selling them some pointless gadget that’s supposed to bring some peace of mind. Case in point, the kickTrak from Baby Kick.
The most obvious feature of the kickTrak is the ability to automatically count your baby’s kicks starting at 24 weeks, supposedly providing a reliable way to track its movement pattern, and reduce the risk of stillbirth. It can also be used at the onset of pregnancy as a sort of countdown timer for your predicted due date, or as an easy way to time your contractions when labor begins. While I’m sure the risk of stillbirth is a real concern, I don’t see how holding this to your stomach for hours at a time is the easiest way to track how much your baby is moving. I’m sure if I had something living inside me I’d be quite aware of whenever it made even the slightest move.
The kickTrak is available on the Baby Kick website for $39.95.
[ Baby Kick kickTrak ] VIA [ Medgadget ]
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Comments [1]
Never being an expectant mother, I’m of course skeptical about the necessity for a device like the kickTrak. However that’s just my opinion, and I’m including further information below that Baby Kick has sent me for those interested in it.
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Thank you for addressing KickTrak recently on your blog. I can understand your initial skepticism about the product as there is some information about kick counting that most people do not know without doing some research. Dr. Diep Nguyen, a board-certified and practicing OB/GYN, created kickTrak because she wanted to make it easier for expecting moms to monitor fetal movement. It simply aids moms in counting the number of kicks, jabs, rolls and turns and monitors the time duration in between each movement. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that expectant mothers note the time it takes for their baby to complete ten movements, at approximately the same time each day when the baby is usually most active. In general, healthy babies should complete ten movements within two hours and most babies achieve ten movements in less than 15 minutes. Moms should alert their healthcare provider immediately if the baby’s normal pattern changes or if the baby takes more than two hours to complete ten movements as decreased fetal movement can indicate increased risk of complications.
Moms use kickTrak by pressing a button each time they feel the baby move during a kick counting session (once daily, as recommended by ACOG). It does not automatically detect each movement, but offers moms an easier way to track their babies’ movement instead of manually recording it using a pen and paper. Dr. Nguyen advocates counting kicks no matter if moms choose to use kickTrak to do it or not. Before she created kickTrak, Dr. Nguyen founded the BabyKick Alliance, a nonprofit organization that offers free kick counting charts and educates parents and healthcare providers about the importance of kick counting.
Public health advocacy groups in Miami and New Jersey have both found the monitoring of fetal movements to be a safe, easy and effective way to reduce infant mortality rates. While manually noting and charting kick counting is an option (and one that many mom-to-be use), kickTrak is a simple and effective way to help track these movements.
Posted 12:04 pm on January 3rd, 2008————————