At 23 weeks, your baby is big enough to produce noticeable movement but still small enough that you won’t feel every twist and turn. If you’re trying to encourage your baby to move so you can feel it, a few simple techniques can help: eating something sweet, drinking cold water, lying on your left side, or gently rubbing your belly. Most work within 15 to 30 minutes.
It’s also worth knowing that at this stage, many movements are easy to miss. Your baby may be active while you’re walking around or distracted, and the sensations can still be subtle enough to confuse with digestion. Before trying anything, understanding what’s normal at 23 weeks can save you a lot of unnecessary worry.
What Movement Feels Like at 23 Weeks
At 23 weeks, your baby’s movements are real but rarely dramatic. Most women describe them as fluttering, light tapping, tiny pulses, bubbles popping, or gentle rolls and tumbles. Some say it feels like small muscle spasms or a flickering sensation. These are very different from the sharp kicks, punches, and somersaults you’ll feel in the third trimester.
The subtlety matters because you may actually be feeling movement without recognizing it. If your placenta is on the front wall of your uterus (an anterior placenta), it acts as a cushion that muffles sensations even further. First-time mothers also tend to recognize fetal movement later than those who’ve been pregnant before, simply because the feeling is unfamiliar.
Eat or Drink Something Sweet
A rise in your blood sugar often triggers a burst of fetal activity. In one study measuring this effect, fetal movement increased significantly within 30 minutes of the mother consuming glucose, with the most noticeable spike happening in the final 10 minutes of that window. You don’t need a glucose drink from a lab. A glass of orange juice, a handful of dried fruit, or a few cookies will do the job.
After eating, sit or lie down somewhere quiet. It’s much easier to notice subtle movements when you’re still and paying attention. Many women miss movement throughout the day because walking, working, and general activity mask those light flutters.
Drink Something Cold
A glass of ice-cold water is one of the oldest tricks midwives recommend, and many women swear by it. The sudden temperature change in your abdomen is thought to give your baby a gentle jolt. There’s no large clinical trial proving exactly why this works, but it’s a routine suggestion in maternity care when providers want to encourage fetal activity.
Try a full glass of cold water, then lie down for 15 to 20 minutes. Combining the cold drink with the sugar technique (cold juice, for example) gives you two stimuli at once.
Lie on Your Left Side
Position matters more than most people realize. When you lie on your back, the weight of your uterus compresses major blood vessels, reducing blood flow to the placenta. MRI research has shown that lying on your back causes measurable drops in placental blood flow and fetal oxygen levels compared to lying on your left side. A baby receiving less oxygen tends to become quiet and conserve energy.
Lying on your left side does the opposite. It maximizes blood flow to the placenta, which means more oxygen and nutrients reaching your baby. A well-supplied baby is a more active baby. This position is also the one most providers recommend for kick counting later in pregnancy, and it’s the best starting point whenever you want to tune in to your baby’s movement.
Gently Rub or Press Your Belly
Your baby can feel pressure through the uterine wall, and gentle touch on your abdomen increases fetal movement. A study that had pregnant women softly caress their abdomen for five minutes found that fetal movements rose significantly during the touching compared to before it. The median number of movements jumped from 5 to 8.5 during gentle stroking. Importantly, the stimulation didn’t cause any changes in fetal heart rate or signs of distress, meaning it’s a safe way to encourage activity.
Research comparing different types of stimulation found that maternal touch produced more arm, head, and mouth movements in the fetus than voice alone or no stimulation at all. You don’t need to poke or prod. Light, circular rubbing or gentle back-and-forth strokes across your belly are enough. The mild pressure travels through the abdominal wall and provides a passive touch stimulus to the baby.
Talk, Sing, or Play Music
Your baby’s hearing is developing at 23 weeks, but there’s an important detail: a fetus at this stage primarily detects low-frequency sounds, roughly below 500 Hz. That’s the range of a deep male voice, bass notes in music, or the rumble of a washing machine. Higher-pitched sounds likely don’t register until closer to 29 weeks because maternal tissue filters them out.
So if you want to use sound to prompt movement, deeper tones are more likely to get a reaction. Playing music with a strong bass line near your belly, or having a partner with a lower voice talk close to your abdomen, may work better than a high-pitched voice at this stage. Direct vibration combined with low-frequency sound (like placing a phone playing music against your belly) has been shown to increase both fetal heart rate and movement, though you should keep the volume moderate.
Why You Might Not Feel Much Yet
At 23 weeks, there’s no established movement pattern to track. Your baby sleeps in cycles of 20 to 40 minutes, moves when awake, and has no obligation to follow a schedule you can predict. Some days you’ll feel a lot, and other days almost nothing. This is normal at this stage.
Formal kick counting isn’t recommended until 28 weeks, when your baby is large enough and active enough to produce consistent, recognizable patterns. Before that point, irregular movement is expected rather than concerning. The goal right now isn’t to hit a specific count. It’s just to feel something from time to time as reassurance that your baby is growing and active.
When Lack of Movement Needs Attention
If you’ve never felt any movement by 24 weeks, that’s worth a conversation with your midwife or doctor. Clinical guidelines recommend checking that your anatomy scan was performed and normal, and in some cases, referring for further assessment.
If you have been feeling regular movement and it stops entirely for a prolonged period, contact your maternity provider right away rather than waiting until the next day. Complete cessation of movement can precede serious complications, so a same-day evaluation is standard practice.
One thing to avoid: home fetal heart monitors (dopplers). These devices have been linked to delayed medical care and infant deaths because parents hear a heartbeat and assume everything is fine when it isn’t. Finding a heartbeat requires training to distinguish your baby’s heart rate from your own pulse or placental blood flow. Hearing something that sounds like a heartbeat can provide dangerous false reassurance. If you’re genuinely worried, a call to your provider is always the right move over a home device.