Merits of an individualized approach to fetal movement counting compared with fixed-time and fixed-number methods.

The most commonly employed methods for maternal counting of fetal movements take no account of variation in the level of activity between fetuses. This may result in false alarms or prolonged counting in pregnancies in which perceived movements are infrequent. A new counting method is described in which an individualized hourly rate of perceived movements is first calculated for each patient; then, the time taken to feel this number is recorded each day for the remainder of the pregnancy. The new system is associated with a substantially lower false alarm rate than a system of counting for an hour and continuing for a second hour if the level is low. In comparison with the Cardiff 'count-to-10' method, the amount of time spent counting each day was more uniform and was halved overall. Although this system is more complicated to initiate these clear advantages suggest that it should be subjected to large-scale feasibility trials.