PIERRE — The South Dakota Department of Health (DOH) is partnering with Count the Kicks, an evidence-based stillbirth prevention campaign, to educate expectant parents in South Dakota about the importance of tracking a baby’s movements daily in the third trimester of pregnancy.
Stillbirth is a national public health crisis. For South Dakota families, one in every 170 pregnancies end in stillbirth and families in the state are 10 times more likely to lose a baby to stillbirth than to SIDS.
Research shows that nearly 30% of stillbirths can be prevented when expectant parents are educated on the importance of tracking their baby’s movements daily starting at 28 weeks. Research also shows a change in a baby’s movements in the third trimester is an early red flag, and by using Count the Kicks, expectant parents can increase the chances of their baby arriving safely.
Count the Kicks has a free app available in the iOS and Google Play app stores that provide expectant parents with a simple, non-invasive way to monitor their babies’ well-being daily. After a few days of using the app, expectant parents begin to see a pattern, a “normal” amount of time it takes their baby to get to 10 movements. If their baby’s “normal” changes during the third trimester, this could be a sign of potential problems and indicates that the expectant parent should call their healthcare provider.
Thanks to the partnership with the South Dakota DOH, community health providers, birthing hospitals, social service agencies, childbirth educators, and other providers in South Dakota can order FREE Count the Kicks educational materials (available at www.CountTheKicks.org) to help them have the kick counting conversation with expectant parents. These materials include posters, brochures, and app download cards in English and Spanish.
“The South Dakota Department of Health is committed to improving birth outcomes for families in our state, and we believe Count the Kicks provides a solution to help save babies. We encourage medical providers or anyone who works with expectant parents to order free Count the Kicks educational materials to share in the communities they serve. Together we can help more families have a healthy birth outcome,” said Beth Dokken, DOH Division Director of Family and Community Health.
According to CDC Wonder, approximately 71 South Dakota babies are stillborn each year. In nearby Iowa, where Count the Kicks began, the state’s stillbirth rate dropped by nearly 32% in the first 10 years of the campaign (2008-2018). Iowa’s rate went from 33rd worst in the country to one of the lowest, while the country’s stillbirth rate remained relatively flat. Through this collaboration, the South Dakota DOH hopes to bring the same success to South Dakota, which would save approximately 23 babies in the state each year.
CDC data shows that every year in the U.S., approximately 700 women die from childbirth complications, and 23,500 babies are stillborn.
The Count the Kicks app is available in 14 languages. App users can see their kick-counting history, rate the strength of their baby’s movements, and set daily reminders. While the partnership with Count the Kicks is new in South Dakota, hundreds of expectant parents have already downloaded the app.
