[The maternal perception of fetal movements during the last trimester of pregnancy].

In a prospective study the foetal movements were simultaneously registered with two real time ultra-sound instruments and compared with the maternal perception of the movements. 35 patients were studied with a mean investigation time of 20 minutes per patient. The mothers pushed a button when they perceived a movements. Synchronous to this registration and storage on a tape were done of the movements of the upper and lower extremities the body movements and the foetal respiratory movements, the foetal heart rate and the uterine contractions. The mothers noticed a total of 38% of all foetal movements. Most frequently the mother noticed in 78% of the cases total foetal movements of the body and extremities. Isolated movements of the foetal body without movements of the extremities were only perceived by the mothers in 31% of the cases and isolated movements of the extremities were only perceived in 15%. In 69% of the cases the mothers correctly indicated that foetal movement took place. In 31% of all maternal signals there was no sonographic evidence of foetal movements of the body or the extremities. In 24% of these cases foetal respiratory movements were evident and in 23% of the cases Braxton-Hicks contractions were found. In 54% of these cases the signal button was used by the mothers without detectable reason. This high failure rate of maternal perception of foetal movements needs to be considered in the evaluation of foetal movements by the mother.