Can a fluttering feeling in the stomach be an early sign of pregnancy?

A mother-to-be should not feel any movement from her baby, which is called quickening, until the second trimester, which includes weeks 14 through 28, according to WebMD. Thin women or women who have had a previous pregnancy may feel the quickening sooner.

Occasionally, a woman feels the baby's movement as early as 12 weeks, but the fetus at that stage is only 4 inches long and weighs just over an ounce, according to WebMD. There is also the possibility that the due date was not calculated accurately, in which case a woman may feel movement while she believes she is in an earlier stage of pregnancy.