THE DIAGNOSTIC VALUE OF THREE FETAL MOVEMENTS COUNTING IN ONE HOUR BY MOTHER IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF DECREASED FETAL MOVEMENTS

Fetal movement counting is a method that used by the mother to quantify her
baby's movements. Since 1970s a variety of counting techniques with different alarm limits have been
developed few of which have been evaluated for predictive values and hence the clinical value of the
absolute number of fetal movements has not been established.
Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in 2011 in Educational and Medical
Center of Alzahra in Tabriz. Three hundred singleton pregnant women at 32-40 weeks’ gestation
having inclusion criteria were selected randomly from among women with complaint of decreased
fetal movement. To perform the counting of three fetal movements in one hour and their recording in
related chart was instructed by the researcher in a face to face manner. After the counting, pregnant
woman was referred to ultrasound unit in order to perform the test of biophysical profile, then the two
test results were compared with each other.
Result: According to the test of fetal movement counting, 99.7% of fetuses were active and 0.3% of
them were inactive. On the basis of the test of biophysical profile, 96.3% of fetuses had score of 10
and 3.7% had score less than 10. In this study, a significant relationship was found to exist between
the result of maternal fetal movement counting and biophysical profile (p< 0.001). The sensitivity,
specificity, positive and negative predictive value of the test of fetal movement counting were 100%,
96%, 9% and 100% respectively.
Conclusion: The result of this study suggests the usefulness of maternal fetal movement counting as
an early simple screening and noninvasive method in assessment of fetal well-being