Femur length - 20 week scan

[MumOfHals]

My baby’s 20 week scan, I noticed on the report that baby’s femur was 30mm and right at the end of the scale ( for small- it doesn’t say what centile this is ) - they weren’t concerned at my 20 week scan, I just saw on my report and then I googled and it mentioned that short femur is a soft marker for syndromes.

Has anyone had this and the outcome was ok?

Yes :-) with my first pregnancy I had numerous of growth scans. Each scan I was told my little girls femur was measuring small. She is 3 now and is perfect height for her age. We joke around now because she has long legs! She was born 5lb12 x

Hey, i dont know but on this tool it looks like its average?

Femur Length Calculator | babyMed.com

If you are concerned you could go for a private scan where they look in more detail, and ask?

@carmexmum it looks like it's on the 5th centile to me which worries me as the head was on the like 80th!!!!!!!

We had this on our 20 week and measuring on 5th. Baby was born 2 weeks ago 6lb 3oz and long arms and legs 🤣 don't worry and don't google- if the hospital were concerned they would tell you. Baby still has lots of growing time yet xx

This happened to us with my ds (he's now 3) we got told five weeks before his due date. Got took into a room to tell us its either down syndrome or dwarfism we was completely shocked they also said he was small. Turnt out legs where fine and he was 8lbs 3. He's right on target height wise for his age and no issues with his legs x

Yes, I noticed the same with femurs at my 20 week scan however everything was completely fine and she was born 9lb 2oz. We had multiple growth scans, firstly because she was too small then she had a growth spurt and was too big so they thought I might have GD! Imo the measurements aren’t overly accurate so try not to worry. She is 14 months now, healthy and 50th centile for height and weight, so completely average.

So very anxious, pregnant at 43 unexpectedly therefore considered high risk from the start. 12 week scan all normal, but then had a bleed at 13 weeks followed by news i had a subchorionic hematoma. 21 week scan signs of short femur at 9th percentile (all others measurements normal siting around 40-50th). 24 week scan with disappointing results showing all limbs measuring at 3rd percentile and again HC and AC measuring lower of what it was 3 weeks earlier 30-35th percentile. We've just been on a rollercoaster and wondered if this has been anyone else's experience. Consultant didn't appear to be majorly concerned, we had an NIPT done at 10 weeks, which was all clear, TORCH test all clear. I really want to enjoy this pregnancy but quite frankly its been a living nightmare.

@maria500 I posted about this, I'm the original poster.

My son is now 8 months old with VERY long legs, measuring small legged in all scans but he's now busting out of sleepsuits and costing me a fortune in new ones!!!

Thanks @MumOfHals, do you remember why your baby was measuring small? We just don't have any answers other than genetic issues, dwarfism and possibly downs, even though we've done the NIPT.

@maria500 they never gave us a reason, legs just grew last and haven't stopped growing since! It's such a worry, but your NIPT being clear is a good sign right?

I suppose, but now they say it's not diagnostic and not 100% guaranteed we won't have issues. So, we are left wondering if we should do an amnio, as it was recommended. I checked your calculations, at 20 weeks looks like you were at 13th centile. Was it always at this level, did it go down or up? Sorry for all the questions, it's just ours seems to be going down with each scan.

Hi @maria500 i am currently going through the same, do u have any update?

@Rdonn89 so sorry you're also going through this. How many weeks are you? Did you also get an NIPT done? I'm now 32 weeks, we didn't go through with the amnio as the consultant advised us not to, he said it wasn't necessary as he is growing steadily on the curve, but still hovering on 3rd-5th centile. Scan next week, so we will see if he drops further, then we will get an amnio done. I would rather know if there are any issues before I go into labour tbh. I'll keep you posted.

Try not to get caught up with the centiles and sizes just yet- there is a centile range for a reason and someone has to be at the smaller end of the scale! 🤍 like I said, my little bit was short with little legs his whole scan & then came out and his legs grew first and bam, he's considered tall.

He's actually 70th for length but 5th for weight. He's a lanky skinny thing xx

Hi @maria500
so I'm 25 weeks now was first noticed at my anatomy scan at 22w5days referred to fetal medicine and they found the same issue she is behind on femur 2.5 weeks so had to go back 2 weeks later for growth and if wanted Amnio....we done that this week there has been growth but overall all measurements are small been on lower centiles but femur is >5% centile, but they did say if continued growth that's good sign and back again in 2 weeks for another growth scan, had Amnio so await results for that, had NIPT at 12 weeks all low risk, the waiting is torture!

How is growth going for everyone? Have you had your babies yet?! I’m 22 weeks now and have some discrepancies between head circumference and femur length which are worrying me a little. Would be lovely to hear how everyone’s doing :)

@Lou5290 I had my beautiful boy 5 months ago and he is absolutely gorgeous. If you read through my old posts you will clearly see how upset I was throughout my pregnancy. It was totally ruined with each scan we had at the hospital. To summarise, we were told we had 1 in 10 chance of DS, despite getting low risk NIPT results which was done early as I was 43 and knew the risks were high. Each scan I left in tears, femur never was above 5th percentile and at times off the chart. Asked if I wanted to do an amnio multiple times. Until I gave birth I was convinced my son had DS or some other genetic issue. My son just turned 5 months old, so far he is very healthy and now well above where he should be weight wise about 80th percentile and nothing wrong with his height, wearing 9 months + clothing already. I know it's easy to say, but please try to enjoy the pregancy, the measurements they give you at these scans can be wildly out and inaccurate. In my case, they were totally wrong!!

@maria500 thanks so much for the update! And congratulations on your lovely baby. I’m so sorry you had to go through so much stress. My last pregnancy was complicated so I fully empathise, there really is nothing more worrying. I’ll have a read through your old posts, I find it really helpful hearing other people’s stories to try and calm my anxious mind! I think it doesn’t help that the hospital I was seen at accidentally plotted all the measurements based on the wrong due date so they all seemed massively skewed to begin with, which led to conversations about possible genetic conditions. Now the measurements have been corrected, they’re not quite so out of range but still out of proportion (HC 70th, AC 35th, FL 17th). But I will just have to hold my nerve and hope for the best. Thanks again and congratulations 😊