Meet Moushka

• Baby Saves

• 02.18.26

“I had seen Count The Kicks on social media over the years and learned how important it was to know your baby and to learn their patterns and movements. 

During pregnancy I felt very connected to my baby. I had an anterior placenta so it took me quite a while until I could feel her moving, but once I understood what a baby movement felt like I loved saying “Hi” to her when she woke up and asking her if she had had a good nap. I loved connecting with her, poking my belly, and playing music for her and feeling her dance around. 

It was a Sunday morning, on the eve of Chanukah, and I wasn’t feeling her as regularly as I had been before. I had been very nervous throughout the pregnancy and noticing a change in her movements had me feeling concerned. I was used to feeling her move for 2-3 minutes every 60-90 minutes. I tried to play it off, thinking maybe she had turned posterior and my placenta was cushioning the kicks, but my concern remained. I felt movements throughout the day, few and far between, but movements nonetheless, and they gave me comfort that she was doing okay (it shouldn’t have).

By Monday I was truly worried, it felt like much too long for my daughter to have been acting differently and I called the midwife at my birthing center. I put music on my belly and waited, but crickets. I went in for my appointment where she put me on the monitor and we waited to see how my baby was doing. After a few minutes my midwife said, “I don’t like what I’m seeing.” Her heart rate was in the 170s when it normally should have been around 150, and there was no variation — it was all very flat.

My midwife called ahead to the hospital to let them know I needed to be checked out and for the next couple of hours I was having ultrasounds and further monitoring there without notable improvement. They had said the phrase, “we can see she’s conserving energy, and we don’t know why.” My midwife appointment had started around 5:30 p.m. and our Moushka was born completely healthy, thank G-d, via emergency cesarean section at 2:15 a.m. on Dec. 16 2025. 

My advice to expectant parents would be to get to know your baby during pregnancy. The more time you spend talking to your baby and connecting with them, the more in tune you’ll be and the more likely you are to notice when something’s not quite right. Because I had been talking to my baby when she moved, I could notice the silence. That absence of movement was what alerted me that something was off. You’ll be more aware if movements feel different or reduced, and that awareness can help you speak up and seek care.

Without the knowledge I had about getting to know my baby’s normal movement patterns in pregnancy, we wouldn’t have been able to save our Moushka’s life.” -Malka, Moushka’s mom