Count the Kicks Campaign Launches in Arizona

State Expansion

• Kimberly Isburg
• 05.03.22

We are excited to share the Arizona Department of Health Services (AZDHS) is partnering with us to educate expectant parents in Arizona about the importance of tracking fetal movement daily in the third trimester of pregnancy. According to CDC Wonder, one out of every 171 pregnancies in Arizona ends in stillbirth. ‬

Thanks to the partnership with Count the Kicks, maternal health providers, birthing hospitals, social services agencies, childbirth educators and other providers in Arizona can order FREE Count the Kicks educational materials (including brochures, posters, and app reminder cards in English and Spanish) on our website. These materials educate expectant parents on how to count kicks and help healthcare professionals have a conversation about the importance of kick counting with the expectant parents they serve. 

Research shows the benefits of expectant parents tracking their baby’s movements daily and learning how long it normally takes their baby to get to 10 movements. The free Count the Kicks app is a powerful tool to help expectant parents get to know what’s normal for their baby.  

The app helps pregnant people track how long it takes their baby to reach 10 movements each day. It also allows them to rate the strength of their baby’s movements and take notes on each day’s kick counting session. After a few days of tracking on the app or a paper chart, moms will 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 is an indication that the expectant mom should call her healthcare provider. 

Kourtnee Clatterbuck is a Chino Valley mom who was using Count the Kicks to monitor her son’s movement in the third trimester — and ultimately saved her son’s life with this campaign. She went to the hospital on Christmas Eve after noticing a change in her son’s normal movement pattern. 

At the hospital, Kourtnee was monitored and tests showed that Calvin wasn’t moving as he should. His heartbeat was showing signs of anemia. Her doctor made the decision to deliver her baby via emergency Cesarean. Doctors told them baby Calvin suffered from a fetal-maternal hemorrhage, a condition where fetal blood is passed into the mother’s blood stream. 

“I am so thankful for kick counts and mother’s instinct and my hope is that someday my story or others like it will save someone else’s little one,” she said. Kourtnee says Calvin has “grown into a wonderful and loving little boy.”

According to CDC Wonder, Arizona loses approximately 485 babies to stillbirth each year.* Stillbirth, defined as the loss of a pregnancy between 20 and 42 weeks gestation, affects 1 in every 169 pregnancies nationally, and is 10 times more common than SIDS. 

In Iowa, where Count the Kicks began, the state’s stillbirth rate dropped by nearly 32 percent 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 rate remained relatively stagnant. AZDHS is hoping to bring the same success that Iowa has seen to Arizona, which could save 155 babies every year.*

Number based on 5-year average stillbirth rate, multiplied by the 32% reduction seen in Iowa. Stillbirth data is from CDC Wonder. Note stillbirth rate is calculated by: Fetal Deaths/Total of Live Births + Fetal Deaths*1,000. Number based on dividing 1,000 by the 5-year average stillbirth rate.