When the Kicks Don’t Stop: Navigating Phantom Kicks After Birth

If you're a mother who has already given birth but still feels little kicks in your belly, you're not imagining things—and you’re definitely not alone. These are known as phantom kicks, and they can be surprisingly common during the postpartum period. Whether you're weeks, months, or even years postpartum, those fluttery sensations can take you right back to pregnancy, evoking a range of emotions—joy, grief, anxiety, or wonder.

What Are Phantom Kicks?

Phantom kicks are the sensation of fetal movement in the abdomen after a woman is no longer pregnant. Though they feel real, there's no baby causing them. These sensations can be caused by gas, muscle memory, uterine contractions, or the brain still being wired to interpret certain abdominal movements as kicks.

For some women, phantom kicks are a minor quirk. For others, especially those who have experienced loss or trauma, they can be emotionally overwhelming.

How to Handle Phantom Kicks Postpartum

1. Acknowledge the Experience Without Shame
   It’s important to validate your feelings. You are not “crazy” or broken. This is your body processing a deeply transformative experience—birth. Allow yourself to acknowledge what you’re feeling, physically and emotionally.

2. Talk About It
   Share your experience with your partner, a trusted friend, or a support group. Many women feel relief in knowing others have gone through the same thing.

3. Care for Your Body
   Staying hydrated, engaging in gentle exercise, and maintaining good posture can reduce muscle-related sensations that may mimic kicks. A warm bath or light abdominal massage can also help ease tension.

4. Invite God Into the Experience
   Use this as an opportunity to pause and reflect. The same body that carried life is now healing, reshaping, and finding new rhythm. That’s sacred. Let the phantom kicks remind you of the miracle you carried—and the God who carried you through it.

Scripture to Meditate On

In moments when these sensations bring confusion, longing, or discomfort, turn your heart toward God. Here are a few scriptures to hold onto:

• Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)
  “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”
  This can remind us that just as pregnancy had its season, so does healing and motherhood.

• Isaiah 66:13 (ESV)
  “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”
  God doesn’t just see you as a mother—He promises to mother you, to comfort you in the places you need most.

• Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV)
  “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
  This beautiful truth doesn’t just apply to your baby—it applies to you too. Your body is still fearfully and wonderfully made, even as it heals and surprises you.

Final Encouragement

Phantom kicks are a quiet echo of what was. They can be reminders of love, life, and even loss. Instead of fearing them, let them be an invitation—to gratitude, to healing, and to deeper intimacy with God.

Mama, you are seen. You are loved. You are not alone.