Growth scan - worried now

[djt87]

Hello,

I am under a consultant for my pregnancy. They started to take growth scans from 28 weeks. The results were as follows

28 weeks:

Head circumference 277.5
Abdominal circumference 232.8
Femur length 52.1
25th centile

33 weeks

Head circumference 306.5
Abdominal circumference 283.0
Femur length 62.9
17th centile

36 weeks

Head circumference 322.0
Abdominal circumference 310.6
Femur length 65
11th centile

I am so worried now that they have dropped again. The midwife said they will see me again in 2 weeks but I don't know how I can wait that long. What's worried me also is that the femur length has not grown much at all from 33 weeks and stupidly I have Google'd and led on to markers of dwarfism and Down syndrome. I'm so worried I just want them to be ok and to be growing correctly. I'm beside myself now that I won't be able to enjoy the last few weeks of my pregnancy as I feel something is wrong. I had all tests earlier on in pregnancy and nothing was picked up. Has anyone experienced anything similar? They said everything looked fine but I feel like they just rushed it all and explained nothing to me.

If they said everything looked fine, then there was nothing to explain.

Honestly, if they had something to tell you, they would.
Try not to worry. Write down any questions you have and ask them next time.

I know it’s hard but try not to worry! As the pregnancy progresses scans get less precise, and you’ll find loads of stories on here about women being told their babies would be tiny and then weighing 9lbs! They said my first would be small but he was 50th percentile pretty much all over in the end. Different sonographers also do the measurements a bit differently: the one at my recent 32 wk growth scan mentioned that she’d made the femur smaller in percentile terms than previous sonographers but she then said that she always measured femurs small!!! She was also pretty open about how it’s more of an art than a science taking the other measurements. So long as baby’s measuring within the normal range you should be ok.

All of your measurements are on the scale: fetalmedicine.org/research/assess/growth
Its fine, when they are talking about short femur it means it drops off the percentile.

I wanted to respond to this and contribute something back as we found these groups invaluable when we were expecting our little girl. At 28 week scan both femur and humerus were measuring around 2-3 weeks behind. We were given the news that there could be an increased risk of DS (even though no other markers and anomaly scan was perfect).
Our girl was born 38 weeks + 2 and weighed 5 pounds 2 ounces. Absolutely tiny however no DS and proportional all around.

Short long bones with no other markers are almost dismissed now as signs of DS as they are too softer markers. Usually (and in many cases - couple of papers written on this) shorter long bones means a smaller baby. This does not mean the baby will be small forever as they usually catch up.

Hope this gives you some hope and you can go back to enjoying the pregnancy.

All the other measurements seem to be increasing so baby certainly is growing. They just aren't putting on the average amount of fat by the looks of it? I know it's hard not to worry but the doctors don't worry unless baby is below the 10th centile (I'm also consultant led).
My first was 9th centile but nothing was wrong with her, she was just small. I can tell you she's not anymore as she's now 4 and on the 71st centile 😅