You feel your baby move from the inside first. When someone else can feel a kick through your bump varies, and the health services this guide draws on give no set week for it. Here's what they do say, and how to give a partner the best chance.
Is there a week?
Not a fixed one. The NHS, RCOG and Pregnancy, Birth and Baby describe when you feel movements yourself, but none of them gives a week for when someone else can feel them from the outside.
Two national health services mention it in their week-by-week pages. NHS inform, Scotland's health information service, says that around 19 to 20 weeks you might feel your baby kick and move, but if you let someone put their hand on your tummy, they might not be able to feel it. 1177, Sweden's national healthcare guide, says in its page for week 24 that your baby's movements can be felt from the outside of your bump, and in its page for week 29 that you may be able to see the kicks from the outside.
Neither gives a week by which everyone will feel them, and this guide doesn't either.
Movements grow stronger
Early movements can feel like a gentle swirling or fluttering, and as your pregnancy goes on, you may feel kicks and jerky movements (NHS). Pregnancy, Birth and Baby says movements become more noticeable, and that you'll feel kicks, jabs and stretches more easily. Movements tend to increase until about 32 weeks (RCOG).
Later in pregnancy, NHS inform says your baby can feel you touching them when you rub your tummy, and that a bump you see might be their hand, foot or elbow. When will I feel my baby move? covers the timing from the inside.
What can make kicks harder to feel
Your placenta. If it's at the front of your womb, it may not be so easy to feel movements (RCOG). There's more in our guide to an anterior placenta. Which way your baby lies. If your baby's back is towards the front of your womb, you may feel fewer movements than if it lies alongside your own back (RCOG). How busy you are. You're less likely to notice movements when you're active or busy (RCOG).
These are what the sources say about feeling movements yourself. None of them describes feeling from the outside separately.
Helping someone else feel a kick
- Pick a time your baby is usually active. RCOG says afternoon and evening are usually times of peak activity.
- Be still. Sit or lie down in a comfortable position (Count the Kicks). You're less likely to notice movements when you're busy (RCOG).
- Put their hand where you feel movements most. With an anterior placenta, Kicks Count suggests your sides and lower down. Where will I feel my baby kick? has more.
- Try again another time if nothing comes. It's a moment to share, not a check.
NHS inform says that by around 21 to 22 weeks your baby can hear sounds outside your body, and that if you talk to them they'll get to know your voice, and might kick in response or go quiet to listen. It suggests that you and your partner or family talk, sing and play music to your baby.
What you feel is what matters
Whether someone else can feel a kick isn't a way to check on your baby. What matters is the pattern you feel yourself.
If by 24 weeks you have never felt your baby move, contact your midwife or maternity unit (RCOG). And once you've been feeling movements, if they slow down, stop or change, contact your midwife, doctor or maternity unit now. Do not wait until tomorrow. What to do.