The kick count chart This test is based on the assumption that there is a relationship between the wellbeing of the foetus and the amount it moves. Cardiff doctor Jim Pearson has devised a version called the 'Cardiff count to ten' system. A woman considered 'at risk' is issued with a kick count chart which breaks up the day between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. into half-hour blocks. She is asked to record each day the half-hour period when the tenth kick of the day took place. A baby which moves less than ten times within a day on successive days is investigated further. The chart is relatively crude and subjective. When is a movement not a movement, and could one movement actually be two? Notwithstanding these kinds of difficulty Pearson argues that 'compared with conventional placental function tests it has been shown to be equally reliable, is inexpensive and does not require an accurate knowledge of gestational age for its proper interpretation'.

Kick count charts are non-invasive, readily understandable by the woman asked to keep them and even demonstrate an attempt to take women's own experiences into account. On the other hand, many women are well aware of whether their baby feels healthy or not, without having to count kicks. Being asked to count them may just cause a new set of worries and problems. As Peter Huntingford says: 'It is just another way of medicalising pregnancy and defining problems without taking into account the quality of women's experience.'

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Women's Health