CLEVELAND — October is Pregnancy and Infant Health Awareness Month, and local health organizations are working to prevent stillbirths here in Ohio.
Count the Kicks is an evidence-based public health campaign that teaches expecting parents about the importance of tracking their baby’s movements daily in the third trimester of pregnancy. Utilizing an app, Count the Kicks makes it easy to record your baby’s movements and notice if something changes.
Parents can also make an impact by talking to their friends and family about Count the Kicks and educating them on the importance of tracking fetal movements
“Being able to start my day, knowing that she was okay and especially in a pregnancy after I lost it, it was everything,” said Jasmine Abraham. “It was everything for my sanity to know that, ‘Okay, today she's good.’”
When Abraham first learned she was pregnant back in 2019, everything seemed like it was going along smoothly. She was deemed a low-risk pregnancy and tests for gestational diabetes and anatomy scans all came back clean.
But midway through her third trimester, something didn’t quite feel right, and Abraham thought it was best to seek some medical attention.
“I had no idea that it was even possible to lose a child after the first trimester in pregnancy,” Abraham said. “I passed the miscarriage risk. You know, so there was zero doubt in my mind that in three weeks' time there would be a baby in my arms.”
What Abraham noticed was reduced fetal movement, so she went to triage at a local hospital while on a family trip in Dayton. After undergoing an ultrasound and several other tests, Abraham and her husband learned the devastating news.
“That's when he turned to me and he said, ‘I’m so sorry. There is no heartbeat and it's nothing you did.’ And in that moment, my world came crashing down,” Abraham said.
In Ohio, there is an average of 883 stillbirths each year. Research shows that nearly one-third of them are preventable.
“While there ultimately did end up being a baby in my arms, he didn't take a breath. He didn't cry. I never saw his eyes. I held him. But he was born into this world sleeping,” Abraham said. “In that moment when they put him on my chest, everything in me just wanted him to breathe. Everything in me just wanted him to cry.”
Through her grief, Abraham found a new purpose to help educate other expecting parents and prevent stillbirths here in Ohio. She’s now one of four ambassadors in the state for Count the Kicks. The app allows parents to track and get to know their baby’s normal movement pattern and the average amount of time it takes their baby to get to 10 movements.
“His loss changed me forever because I have two children. But if you were to look at me on the street and not know my story, you would only see one,” Abraham said.
The app and campaign itself started in Iowa about 10 years ago and has successfully lowered the state’s stillbirth rate by 32%. Abraham took full advantage of the tools at her disposal to closely monitor fetal movement in her second pregnancy.
“I was so detached from her pregnancy because I could not bear to try to bond with her and then lose her,” Abraham said. “You always hear that, right, when your child is born, you feel all of this flood of love and emotion. I think because I had my heart so guarded that love had to grow.”
The Ohio Department of Health said the state had an infant mortality rate of 6.5 per 1,000 live births from July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2022.
After a successful pregnancy, Abraham feels fortunate to have a platform and a tool to help educate and help other mothers in order to prevent stillbirths.
“The biggest blessing that Count the Kicks gives me is the ability to talk about my son when I normally don't get asked about him,” Abraham said. “Being able to tell his story, although it is a very sad one, it brings me joy, because I get to remember him.”
Abraham named her baby boy Qasem, pronounced "Awesome." Her second child, a daughter, is named Aya.
“His legacy lives on through the hope of being able to prevent at least one other family from going through this loss,” Abraham said. “Because it’s not a one-time loss, it’s a forever loss.”
You can learn more about Count the Kicks and download the app from their website here.
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