Baby hiccups!?

Question

Iam 36 weeks pregnant and recently noticed that my baby is getting a lot of hiccups. Its vey sweet, but just wondered if anyone knew why this is happening? x x x

Answer 1

My babies had the hiccups all the time. Even after they were born. All 3 of my kids are very smart, honor roll students. So maybe its a good sign!!

Answer 2

All my kids had the hiccups when I carried them. They drink that fluid that surrounds them and apparently they drink too fast and get the hiccups. They say hiccups means they are growing. I am 29 weeks and my baby gets them all the time. Never push down on a baby's soft spot for any reason. That is an opening in the baby's skull that does not close up for like 2-3 years.

Answer 3

When I was pregnant my baby practically kept the hiccups. I always heard that it was because they were learning to open their mouth inside the womb and that they got some of the fluid in their mouths and got the hiccups... Kinda like we do when we breathe in air too quick. It's normal though because I have a few friends who have told me that their babies got the hiccups too while they were pregnant.

Answer 4

Your baby's body is getting ready. The hiccups that the baby has is a way for his/her diaphragm to practice, and build strength, to help with the baby's breathing when born.

Just a fun side note, keep track of what time of day it is when babe has the hiccups, cuz usually after born, will continue to have them at the same time.
This happened with my youngest, and was actually really cool after she was born.

Answer 5

It's just a muscle spasm of the diaphragm. My baby hiccuped the last few months of pregnancy and the first few months of life!!

Answer 6

Babies get hiccups all the time. My daughter got them all the time in utero and even gets them all the time now. It is completely normal and nothing to worry about. Good luck!

Answer 7

My girl used to hiccup all the time, you could see it happening while she was in my belly! And she still gets them to this day at 9 months old. I don't know why they get them though. It doesn't seem to bother her.

Answer 8

There is not a great deal written in the medical resources about fetal hiccoughing beyond that it is fetal reflex similar to our own. Only the more mature fetuses do this because of the development of the central nervous system. Some think that it is a response to fetal drinking or fetal breathing which causes the flow of amniotic fluid in and out of the lungs, stimulating the diaphragm to contract.

Here is what I found in Medline.

Fetal hiccups in the baboon.
American Journal of Physiology. 267(6 Pt 2):R1479-87, 1994 Dec.

Bouts of hiccuping are recognized by pregnant women as distinct episodic movements of their fetuses. Ultrasound imaging of these fetuses has documented the occurrence of hiccups from early gestation through parturition. This study provides a systematic characterization of prenatal hiccuping in the fetal baboon (Papio species). Tracheal fluid pressure was recorded from 11 chronically instrumented fetal baboons for 21.5 +/- 7.3 consecutive days (mean +/- SD) over a range in gestation from 124 to 164 days (term 175 days). In an initial review of pressure recordings by visual inspection, hiccups were recognized as distinctive high-amplitude fluctuations in tracheal pressure that were readily discriminated from fetal breaths. Automated techniques were then developed and validated to detect hiccups and summarize their features. The mean hiccup amplitude was w 23.0 +/- 3.1 mmHg, inspiratory time was 0.26 +/- 0.03 s, and expiratory time was 0.27 +/- 0.02 s. Each of these features discriminated hiccups from breaths (P < 0.001). Hiccuping incidence (1.8 +/- 0.4% of time), rate (26.2 +/- 6.2 min-1), bout duration (4.3 +/- 0.8 min), and the interval between bouts (3.35 +/- 0.60 h) were also different (P < 0.01) from breathing. These features of hiccups remained relatively constant over the latter third of gestation with the exception of an increase in duration of the expiratory time interval (r = 0.54, P < 0.01). Despite their vigorous nature, bouts of hiccuping were not associated with transitions in behavioral state. Moreover, the features of hiccups were not differentiated by state. Bouts of hiccuping recurred in a cyclic fashion, on average every 3-4 h.

Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine. 12(11):641-3, 1993 Nov

Absent and reversed UA end-diastolic blood flow is usually a poor prognostic sign. However, in 19 fetuses evaluated in the Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Unit, we observed an unusual pattern of intermittent, significantly decreased, or reversed UA blood flow that coincided with a demonstration of fetal hiccuping. No evidence of cardiac arrhythmia, heart failure, or uteroplacental dysfunction was found in these fetuses. With one exception, all Doppler evaluations were otherwise normal. A potential mechanism of intermittent fetal UA blood flow reversal is discussed.

Answer 9

Your baby is practicing for when its born. Those hiccups are the fetus breathing. Cool huh?

Answer 10

not sure why, but my daughter had the hiccups badly when i was pregnant, shes now 13 months old and it still hasnt stopped.