"Phantom" Fetal Movement

I remember the first time I experienced phantom fetal movement. My first son was a few months old, and I was stunned to feel what seemed to be fetal movement. I began to think I was nuts, because I knew I wasn't pregnant, but it sure felt like there was a baby in there. At times I could even feel the movement while resting my hand on my belly. It felt exactly like the movements I knew so well from when I was pregnant with my son. What on earth was going on?

Apparently, what I was feeling is a highly common sensation known as "phantom fetal movement". Women who have experienced fetal movement during pregnancy seem particularly prone this feeling, and describe it as identical or nearly so to the in utero movements of babies they have carried and subsequently delivered.

Old Wives Tales and Other Explanations

When I first looked into this, all those years ago, someone told me "Oh, that is your body reminding you how much you liked having a baby in there, feeling them move and looking forward to their arrival." Someone else said "My Jamaican grandmother told me those are your body's way of telling you that you need another baby!"

Other possibilities, frequently suggested on messages and forums frequented by mothers are: "gas", gas bubbles, other issues related to digestion, "muscle memory" (stomach muscles "remembering" the pregnancy), organs "settling" into their normal position after having been shifted by pregnancy. Another possibility is that after pregnancy (when these phantom kicks are most common), simple muscle and intestinal twitches get interpreted as "baby kicks" because they may feel somewhat similar.

A Psychiatric Problem?

It can be frustrating for a woman looking for answers to find that there is very little information available. On-line searches turn up dozens of pages with questions about phantom fetal movement. The few medical resources focus mostly on possible psychiatric causes, as phantom "baby kicks" are of course a symptom of pseudocyesis ("False Pregnancy")¹ and also apparently common among women who have experienced miscarriage or stillbirth.² But pseudocyesis (false pregnancy) involves the actual belief that one is pregnant, along with a normally much larger list of symptoms than just imagined fetal movement. As a symptom of stress or disorder after pregnancy or infant loss, it may be common, but this certainly is not the case for many women experiencing this symptom, many of whom have had only healthy pregnancies and delivered live babies.

Cause for Concern?

Currently, it seems there are no readily available studies or medical explanations for why mentally and physically healthy women experience phantom fetal movement. Perhaps that is because it does not seem to be a pressing medical issue, but rather one of those minor oddities that generates a lot of discussion but doesn't seem to call for much action. As a stand-alone symptom, not connected to pseudocyesis, these phantom baby movements seem to be nothing more than a minor annoyance, at worst. Of course, it's always a good idea to rule out pregnancy, just to be certain. In any case, if you've experienced these phantom "baby kicks" you're probably not crazy, but you're in good company--with the rest of us.

¹False Pregnancy (Pseudocyesis), staff, WebMD
²Acute and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder after Spontaneous Abortion, Bowles et al., American Family Physician/AAFP