Midwifery Today Community

 I Have a mum on the books at the moment,who, from 34 wks (G2) has experienced clicking sounds coming from the uterus...its gotten so loud and frequent that her husband can hear it from across the room, it is unsettling both of them as no one seems to know what it is, gynae (OB) think she imagining it, chiro has checked her, doesn t seem to be a ligament/joint thing, baby scanned and seems fine. Has anyone lese had experience with this??

the only thing i can think of is a hip dysplasia,  which can only be diagnosed postbirth.Its occursing day and night now, unrelated to maternal position or fetal movement, and happens while mum and baby are stockstill as well as when they are both active. This would of course, happen to one of my more sensitive mothers, who is more than a little neurotic at the best of times.......

ANy advice would be greatly appreciated as im at a loss on what to tell her..

I have been teaching cb classes for 18 years.  When I first started, I had a noisy baby in class.  You could hear the clicking from across the room.  The MD did an ultrasound and found that baby seemed to enjoy twanging the mom's xiphoid process with his toes!  It was the most bizarre thing I've ever heard--both in person and the reason for the click.  Could this possibly be the case with your mama?  I wonder if it is not indeed because you said it occurs no matter what.  Once my mama found out what it was, she could reposition herself to get that little foot out from under her sternum but he invariably went right back to clicking.

It happened to one of my mamas too and it was a rib and tendon issue, if I remember correctly.  ND helped with a homeopathic (if I can remember which mama, I'll find out which homeopathic!)and an adjustment.  That helped and it cleared up right after birthing.

So, April, was it mama clicking (her own rib/tendon) or was it baby clicking mama?

It was mama, all the way.  Even breathing could move the rib and cause a click.  Shoots,

I'll have to go and look now.  What year was that???

 I had this with all three of my pregnancies. The first pregnancy had me very nervous that something was wrong. By the third, I was very used to it, and was not worried. All three babies were fine. I have also talked to others who have experienced this. However, it seems to be rare, and I have never figured out what it was. I still ask about it, but have never gotten a real answer.

The process of 'clicking baby in utero'  is not discussed in midwifery or realted  text books. Therefore it is very much difficult to tell about the exact reason of this phenomina.

 Just to update you, baby was born yesterday, after an hour of labour!! She definately had a mild hip dysplasia,with an audible click on rotation of the right hip. paed has sent her home with reassurances to mom and dad that its so mild it will have no effect on her physical development.Mum repoted that the clicking had completely disappeared in the week prior to labour....

Thanks for the follow up post!  I'm sure we'll be keeping this in the back of our heads the next time a "noisy" baby is heard in utero.