Growth Scan = large HC (ouch???)

[LoobyB]

Hi All,

My 1st time posting so i hope it appears - anyway I'm a little worried as I had a growth scan at 31 weeks and babies HC was 31cm which I belive to be large???? the Femur was 64mm .. Daft question but will babies HC get much bigger or can they have growth spurts then stop for a while? because of low amniotic fluid I'm back for another scan next week so will find out more then ... any advice appreciated . Lou x

the only advice i can give is:

dont worry about it, the worry will upset baby.

chill and let dh/dp run around after you.

My understanding is that it's very difficult to estimate the size of the baby, including head size even from ultrasound. Loads of people on here have been told they're having HUGE / TINY babies and then ended up with the reverse, or totally average!

By all means ask them at the next scan ... but I wouldn't worry too much ... as far as that is possible in any pregnancy!

is HC head circumference? If so 31cm isn't that large.
My ds had a head circumference of 38cm!!! when he was born. No wonder he had to be sucked out, there was no way I could push that out by myself!
I spoke to a couple of other mothers on the ward and at birth their babies were all between 30-35 (a couple were premature though)
I shouldn't worry too much about it. After all, there isn't anything you can do about it anyway!

loobyb- I would ask again at the next scan if you are worried, but I am fairly sure to that when you have reduced fluid it is even harder to measure ( something to do with the density etc) I just remember thewm saing something to me re the growth scan s for DD 8yrs ago due to lack of fluid that they would not be as accurate.

My DS had a big head (still has bless him!!) but it was fine. He was estimated to be big on the growth scans which he was (10 pounds) but it was ok. Do you not have a graph thing in your notes where they plot on the lengths and stuff?

DS had a big head (38.5cms at birth) - he measured large throughout my pregnancy and to be honest the extra monitoring upset/worried me so much I shouldn't have bothered. I was scanned every 3 weeks - at one point I was told to expect an 11.5lb+ baby, possible induction at 38 weeks and subjected to tests for Gestational Diabetes and loads of other poking and prodding.

Turns out he weighed 8lbs5 was very tall but skinny (he came 8 days early).

IMO try not to worry too much about the "measurements" - they seem to cause more worry than they are worth. Easier said than done I know.

Good luck

I can't remember what DS's HC actually was, but they told me that it was on the 98th percentile, so used that to estimate his weight to be 10lb, 4 weeks before I was due. I actually went a couple of weeks over, so I was really scared that he would be huge, but he ended up only being 7lb 13oz, just with a big head!

Thanks for your replies, v much appreciated. I know that even women with 6lb babies can have a difficult labour so I'm more chilled now...

Thanks again
Lou

yes, do relax about it - I had growth scans at 32 and 36 weeks, was told baby would be about 7lb 8ozs and she was 9 lb 14 ozs - so completely & utterly wrong there. But the labour was still fine really even though she was so big. In my experience, they're not very good at estimating the size from scans!