Does baby keep kicking during labour?

[Lucy]

Homestly, I cannot for the life of me remember feeling any kicks through any of my labours. Olivia particularly was a hefty kicker whilst I was pg, but during labour I was focused on the contractins......maybe the kicking paled in comparison?

[Cassius2]

Yep, have to say that Leila was a wriggler all through pg and during labour. everytime contraction would come over (during the early ones particularly) she would push against it (not much room for kicking when she was 38 weeks!!). after a while though i stopped noticing...must have been when contractions outweighed the kicking discomfort!! LOL!

Good luck with your labour, it's amazing what us women can do!!

[EJM]

I think I was hoping that he would be concentrating on getting out... I can also imagine legs kicking like a little swimmer in an attempt to go down the birth canal

I guess we will wait and see! I'll let you know, hopefully sooner rather than later!

[MantaRay]

My boys were both kickers too, but I have no idea if they kicked during labour. TBH, I was too busy concentrating on breathing though pains and doing what had to be done, to notice!

[~Saram~]

DS was induced with syntocin and ARm at 36 wks and I only felt him kick as they broke my waters

DD was induced post dates with ARM and she kicked and squirmed the whole time. She was also posterier and I felt her turing for the first hour of labour. She quietened a little during active labour (or I was tuned out) but I remember her kicking in between contrax when we were pushing. It wasn't as weird as you might think :-)

[Mum0809]

I don't remember Harrison kicking me at all. I think I had my mind on other things.

[paradise lost]

I had a homebirth and they asked me to pay attention to bubs kicks during labour because they only listened with the doppler intermittently and obviously a baby in trouble/distress won't move as much. So they listened in every 15-20mins, and asked me if she was moving every 15-20, in between the listening. She kicked and squirmed all the way through, and it was very very handy for me because it was like her saying, in the gaps between contractions (i couldn't feel her kick during them) "Hey mama, i'm ok! You ok?" and it really gave me the peace of knowing she was doing good, and the strength to carry on.

Babies are not passive during labour. When you put a newborn's feet against a hard surface they will push down and "step" - they call it the stepping reflex. During labour, when the uterus contracts the baby pushes with its feet because of the reflex. I read an account once of a woman who'd had 3 kids and then gave birth to her fourth 3 days after he had passed in the womb. He was full term, and had died of a cord accident (his cord was abnormally long, over 150cm). She said labour was very different without the baby being able to do any of the work.

Bx