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- Title
"Phantom Kicks": Women's Subjective Experience of Fetal Kicks After the Postpartum Period.
- Authors
Sasan, Disha; Ward, Phillip G.D.; Nash, Meredith; Orchard, Edwina R.; Farrell, Michael J.; Hohwy, Jakob; Jamadar, Sharna D.
- Abstract
Background: During pregnancy, a woman will attribute increased abdominal sensations to fetal movement. Surprisingly, many women report that they feel kick sensations long after the pregnancy; however, this experience has never been reported in the scientific literature. Materials and Methods: We used a qualitative approach to survey n = 197 women who had previously been pregnant. We calculated the number of women who had experienced phantom kicks after their first pregnancy, and explored subjective experiences of kick-like sensations in the post-partum period. Results: In this study, we show that almost 40% of women in our sample experienced phantom fetal kicks after their first pregnancy, up to 28 years (average 6.4 years) post-partum. Women described the phantom sensations as "convincing," "real kicks," or "flutters." Twenty-seven percent of women described the experience as nostalgic or comforting, and 25.7% reported felt confused or upset by the experience. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that phantom kicks in the postpartum period are a widely experienced sensation, which may have implications for a woman's postpartum mental health. The mechanism behind the phantom kick phenomenon is unknown, but may be related to changes in the somatosensory homunculus or proprioception during pregnancy.
- Subjects
EXPERIENCE; FETAL movement; MENTAL health; MOTHERHOOD; PUERPERIUM; SURVEYS; QUALITATIVE research; DESCRIPTIVE statistics
- Publication
Journal of Women's Health (15409996), 2021, Vol 30, Issue 1, p36
- ISSN
1540-9996
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1089/jwh.2019.8191