I am not the most gadget-focused person around. I don’t have an iPod. My cell phone is primitive. I don’t even have cable TV. But here is one device that has me feeling tech-envy: kickTrak.

Nearly all pregnant women are being asked to keep track of their baby’s movements for a period of time each day, beginning around the 28th week of pregnancy. A sudden decrease in the amount of movement may signal a problem and indicates that the woman should call her health care provider immediately.

Tracking fetal kicks was easy to do when I was pregnant with my first child. I knew he was especially active just before lunchtime, shortly before I left my office, and again at bedtime. I would anticipate his movements at those times and use a clock and pen-and-paper or fingers to see how long it took him to move 10 times. The goal was that he would move that many times within 2 hours, but he typically moved that many times within 20 or 30 minutes. I gained a sense of reassurance from the predictability of his movements.

By comparison, it was much more difficult to track fetal kicks when I was pregnant with my third. I was juggling work and family responsibilities, recovering from a serious car accident, and caring for a preschooler and a toddler. My midwife would ask about the baby’s movements, and I was able to say that his movements were pretty consistent. But I had difficulty pinpointing what that meant. I would have felt a whole lot better about my responses if they weren’t so vague and if I could back them up with data such as that provided by the kickTrak.

This handy little counter helps a pregnant woman to accurately and easily count her baby’s movements. It fits comfortably in one hand and has just two buttons. After it is set with the user’s estimated week and day of pregnancy, the device enters “kick mode.” The pregnant woman presses the larger button when she feels her baby kick, roll, turn, or jab. Each time a movement is indicated, kickTrak adds a foot to its small screen. After the tenth foot appears, the device plays a few bars of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” to get the user’s attention, then displays the amount of time that has elapsed. KickTrak maintains data for the 10 most recent kick counting sessions. Users can select English or Spanish language for the device, and they can loop it on an included lanyard if they so choose.

But KickTrak offers no guarantees. Kick counts are a simple but inexact method of monitoring fetal well-being. Also, this device is not strictly necessary; kick counts can certainly be done without it. Still, I expect this gadget will provide some measure of reassurance for busy mothers-to-be who need counting to be just a little easier if it is to be practical. Good luck, though, to those with preschoolers underfoot—they may have some difficulty keeping this “toy” out of their children’s hands.