Lauren Musso Says Her Worry About Her Unborn Son’s Movements Was Dismissed. Avery Died at Three and a Half Months.

Lauren Musso, 28, of Schenectady, New York, says her baby’s kicks technically met the minimum count, and that is why her worry about them was set aside. Her son Avery died at three and a half months old, the day after the family moved him to hospice care. Musso told her story to Newsweek, which published it on November 7, 2026. She hopes providers will take parents’ concerns seriously.

The Night the Kicks Changed

Musso’s pregnancy was already hard. Newsweek reported that she had severe hyperemesis gravidarum, which left her repeatedly hospitalized and struggling to keep down food and water.

Months before Avery’s birth, she noticed a change. “Overnight, the strength and frequency of his kicks dropped dramatically and never returned,” she told the outlet. When she raised it, she was told that “he was technically meeting minimum kick counts,” according to her account.

She pushed for an ultrasound. One provider agreed to order it and told her she could “make a case for it,” Musso said. Later scans showed Avery staying motionless for long stretches.

A fetal MRI was scheduled weeks later. Musso said one specialist told her there was a “99 percent” chance he would be fine. The medical center that cared for Avery declined to comment to Newsweek, citing patient confidentiality, so her account of those conversations has not been answered on the record.

From the NICU to the MRI

Avery spent one week in the neonatal intensive care unit and struggled to gain weight, Newsweek reported. He was diagnosed with laryngomalacia, a condition in which tissue around the voice box collapses slightly inward during breathing.

He also had repeated episodes in which he stopped breathing or his heart rate dropped, along with eye deviation and unusual movements. Musso said those signs were attributed to laryngomalacia and normal newborn behavior. Avery was readmitted several times before he was finally discharged.

A few days after discharge, Avery went into cardiac arrest at a clinic. His nanny was the first to perform CPR, according to Newsweek.

That same day, Musso spoke with a neurologist at his bedside. She described his hand as “limp” and “lifeless” and asked for a full neurological workup. Avery was put back on a breathing tube for a brain MRI, which revealed multicystic encephalomalacia, a severe and irreversible form of brain damage. Seizure activity was formally identified only days before he died.

He spent his last weeks in the pediatric intensive care unit, mostly on a ventilator. The family chose hospice, and Avery died at three and a half months old.

Stanford Medicine Children’s Health explains that doctors can sometimes see brain problems before birth. On its page about fetal brain abnormalities, the hospital says a fetal ultrasound may show or suggest a problem and that a fetal MRI may then be recommended for a clearer view. How a child is affected, it adds, depends on the area of the brain involved, how severe the finding is and whether other organs or genetic differences are present.

What Counting Kicks Is Meant to Catch

Kick counting is a common tool for tracking how an unborn baby moves. Count the Kicks, a stillbirth prevention campaign, advises expectant parents to begin counting daily at the start of the third trimester. Parents pick a time of day when the baby tends to be moving, start a timer and record how long it takes to feel 10 movements, then compare each session with earlier ones.

The group’s guidance is to go to the hospital if a parent notices a change in the baby’s movement patterns.

A Lamaze International article on reduced fetal movement points to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, whose 2021 advice is to look for “10 distinct movements in a period of up to 2 continuous or interrupted hours.” Lamaze quotes Count the Kicks that “There is no magic number of movements a mother should feel,” which is why learning a baby’s own pattern matters. It also notes that monitoring can raise anxiety and lead to extra testing.

That nuance sits at the center of Musso’s account. A count can meet a minimum while the pattern behind it has changed sharply, and she says the sharp change is what she was trying to report.

What a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Doctor Told Newsweek

Dr. Jeffrey Chapa, national medical director of maternal-fetal medicine at Obtelecare, spoke to Newsweek about reduced movement. He said reduced fetal movement is common and can have many causes, but it should be evaluated.

Chapa said it is difficult to know whether an earlier diagnosis would have changed Avery’s outcome, since severe brain injuries can have multiple causes. Some conditions cannot be prevented or reversed, he said, while others may benefit from prenatal treatment or planning with specialists before delivery. Finding a problem earlier, he added, allows more time for a thorough evaluation.

The hyperemesis Musso experienced is a separate matter. The Cleveland Clinic describes it as severe, persistent nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, with weight loss of more than 5 percent of pre-pregnancy weight and trouble keeping food or liquids down. The clinic says it usually does not affect the fetus when it is monitored and treated, and it advises anyone who cannot keep fluids down to contact a pregnancy care provider.

What Musso Wants Providers to Hear

Musso told Newsweek she hopes providers take parents’ concerns seriously and that more attention is paid to hyperemesis gravidarum. Her account is one parent’s recollection of events that the medical center has declined to discuss.

What the record in Newsweek does show is a mother who noticed her son’s kicks change, kept asking questions through scans, an MRI and weeks in intensive care, and lost him at three and a half months.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Doug Kerr – CC BY-SA 2.0/Wikimedia Commons