Association Between Gestational Weeks, Initial Maternal Perception of Fetal Movement, and Individual Interoceptive Differences in Pregnant Women: Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Interoception encompasses the conscious awareness of homeostasis in the body. Given that fetal movement awareness is a component of interoception in pregnant women, the timing of initial detection of fetal movement may indicate individual differences in interoceptive sensitivity.

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine whether the association between the gestational week of initial movement awareness and interoception can be a convenient evaluation index for interoception in pregnant women.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 32 pregnant women aged 20 years or older at 22-29 weeks of gestation with stable hemodynamics in the Obstetric Outpatient Department. Interoception was assessed using the heartbeat-counting task, with gestational weeks at the first awareness of fetal movement recorded via a questionnaire. Spearman rank correlation was used to compare the gestational weeks at the first awareness of fetal movement and heartbeat-counting task scores.

Results: A significant negative correlation was found between the gestational weeks at the first fetal movement awareness and heartbeat-counting task performance among all participants (r=-0.43, P=.01) and among primiparous women (r=-0.53, P=.03) but not among multiparous women.

Conclusions: Individual differences in interoception appear to correlate with the differences observed in the timing of the first awareness of fetal movement.