Referred for growth scan at 34 weeks

[Ploppymoodypants]

Hello, wondering if anyone can offer any insight for me please.
I have been referred for a growth scan after my 34 weeks midwife appointment. Last appointment baby was measuring on the 50th centile. Now crossed down a line so been referred for a growth scan. It’s for for a whole week and I am feel very anxious as I don’t really know what it could indicate. Midwife wouldn’t really be drawn on anything and kept just saying it was routine and I should find it reassuring. Well I don’t. I am super worried. Can anyone tell me why and what they are looking for please?
Heart beat was fine.

It doesn't really mean anything, they just refer you to make absolutely sure everything is fine. I had a growth scan around the same time because my bump was measuring small. The growth scan showed everything was fine though, and I ended up having quite a big baby in the end! All of this stuff is notoriously inaccurate though so I really wouldn't worry!

Thank you for your reassuring message. I know there is nothing really they can do anyway. It’s just taken me by surprise really. Thank you

This happened to me last week. Midwife measured me wrong. My last scan I was bang on 50th percentile and within 2 weeks she was telling me I was out of range.

Went to growth scan and was measuring bang on 50th percentile. From chatting with friends this can be quite common as midwifes can measure differently each time.

I had the same thing with dd. Her growth scan was fine and she was 8lb at birth.

Were you referred based on fundal height? If so, there are a lot of completely innocent reasons for it to be lower

• Measurement error
• Baby starting to engage lower in the pelvis
• Baby curled up tightly
• You just have a low fundal height for no reason
• Baby is small but perfectly healthy

The other possible things are

• Baby is transverse (if so there's still plenty of time to get head down)
• Baby is small because the placenta isn't working as well as it should. If it's this you're close to full term anyway, which is good, and you'd need extra monitoring, and maybe induction depending on how baby's growing.

They have to refer you for a growth scan just in case you need extra monitoring due to that last possibility. Most of the time there's nothing wrong and you just get an extra look at your baby.