Most people start to feel their baby move somewhere between 16 and 24 weeks. When it happens for you depends on a few things — whether you've been pregnant before, where your placenta is, and how busy your days are.
The usual window
The NHS says you should start to feel your baby move between 16 and 24 weeks of pregnancy. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) puts it a little more precisely: most women first become aware of their baby moving at 18 to 20 weeks.
Those first movements are often called quickening. There's no single week when they arrive — the window is wide, and where you fall in it says nothing about your baby on its own.
First, second or later pregnancy
In a first pregnancy, you might not feel movements until after 20 weeks (NHS, RCOG, Tommy's). In a second, third or later pregnancy, you may feel movements as early as 16 weeks (RCOG, Tommy's). Pregnancy, Birth and Baby says feeling your baby move earlier is more common in a second or later pregnancy. In any pregnancy, most women first become aware of movements at 18 to 20 weeks (RCOG), and the NHS gives a window of 16 to 24 weeks.
None of these sources gives a separate week for a third or fourth pregnancy: each one counts as having been pregnant before, and the window stays just as wide. The advice for 24 weeks, at the end of this guide, is the same in every pregnancy. Baby movements at 16 to 20 weeks follows those weeks more closely.
What the first movements feel like
Early movements can feel like a gentle swirling or fluttering. As your pregnancy goes on, you may feel kicks and jerky movements (NHS). RCOG describes movements as a kick, flutter, swish or roll.
First flutters often feel like bubbles — many only notice them lying still.
Why you might feel them later
Where your placenta is. 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. Head down or bottom first makes no difference to whether you feel them (RCOG). How busy you are. You're less likely to notice movements when you're active or busy (RCOG).
With an anterior placenta
If your placenta is at the front of your womb, it can cushion your baby's first movements. Kicks Count, a UK charity, says it's common to feel them later than with a placenta elsewhere. Pregnancy, Birth and Baby says movement tends to be felt at around 20 weeks and may not feel as strong, and Count the Kicks says it may take a little longer, in weeks.
Whatever your placenta's position, if you reach 24 weeks without feeling your baby move, contact your midwife or maternity unit (Kicks Count, RCOG).
As the weeks go on
Movements tend to increase until about 32 weeks and then stay about the same, although the type of movement may change nearer your due date (RCOG, Tommy's). You should keep feeling your baby move right up to and during labour (NHS, RCOG).
Once you've got to know your baby's movements, counting them is one way of keeping track — and what counts as a kick changes a little as space gets tighter.
Feeling kicks from the outside
You feel your baby from the inside first. The sources this guide draws on give no week for when someone else can feel a kick through your bump. What they describe is movements that grow: from a gentle swirling or fluttering to kicks and jerky movements (NHS), and kicks, jabs and stretches you feel more easily as your pregnancy goes on (Pregnancy, Birth and Baby).
If you'd like someone else to feel a kick, try when your baby is usually active and you're sitting or lying still. You're less likely to notice movements when you're busy (RCOG). Where will I feel my baby kick? covers where on your bump to feel for them. Feeling your baby kick from the outside gathers what health services say about it.
If you haven't felt your baby move by 24 weeks
RCOG advises that if by 24 weeks you have never felt your baby move, you should contact your midwife or maternity unit, who will check your baby's heartbeat. And at any stage, if movements you've been feeling slow down or change, contact them straight away — here's what to do.