9th percentile at 33 weeks - worrying

[islingtongirl]

As the title says, went for routine growth scan and baby measuring a bit small. They want to re-scan me again in 4 weeks...wasn't too worried until got home and started googling - people being induced early, intrauterine growth restrictions etc and got a bit worried/upset. OH away all week on business and just feel a bit alone - anyone else had this and all been ok? They estimated her weight at 4lb 3oz which sounded ok to me

Really sorry to hear you are on your own and worrying. I don't have any experience about your situation but just wanted to post a hug xxx

Ahh thanks Fraggle. I'm hopefully worrying over nothing, as they didn't seem too concerned, but you know how it is, alone, evening, over thinking things,,,I guess I just assumed everything would be fine

You can drive yourself mad 'googling' stuff! Hopefully someone who knows a bit more will post. At least they are scanning you again xxx

Don't worry 9th percentile is still NORMAL SIZE, just smaller than average 4lb 3oz sounds like a good weight for 33 weeks! A friend of mine had a baby who weighed 1400g recently at 36 weeks (brought out early due to IUGR)!

Scans are often hugely inaccurate at predicting babies weight (although apparently better for smaller babies than big ones)

Also, babies grow in spurts, so might well be much bigger at the next scan. Unfortunately, you never stop worrying that they're growing well enough even once they're born. There's nothing wrong/unhealthy/abnormal about a baby on the 9th percentile for weight if that's the percentile that they're tracking

Scans aren't accurate, I had a scan at 34 weeks due to reduced movements,was informed baby was sizeable, 7.5lbs at 34 weeks. The sweepstake at work ranged from 9lb to 14lb gits
Dd was born at 37 + 4 after waters went early weighing a hefty 6lb 12oz. Hthe sonographer even said the scans were wildly inaccurate.

I had weekly scans from 28 weeks as my DS measured at best on the 10th percentile. I too googled like mad for that last 12 weeks and got v upset. He was induced at 40 weeks and weighed 7lb 4oz - something like 35th percentile and a good weight! He's now 3 weeks old EBF and weighing 9lb 5oz. Please don't worry, your baby is already a viable weight. Easier said than done, I know x

Hi Igirl - please excuse this tangent about "percentiles" and what they mean..

You might have noticed but not everybody of the same age is the same weight and height. And barring malnourishment/ obesity not everyone is meant to be the same weigh and height. There will be an average and and there will be taller/shorter and heavier/lighter people each side of the "average".

9th percentile means 9% babies will still be smaller (and 91% of babies bigger). I don't know as much about growth in the womb - but once your baby is born they use growth charts to check that whatever size (or percentile) your baby they follow an expected or average growth pattern (so not really to check which percentile your baby is on, but to check that they don't move too much between percentiles - so dropping between percentiles MIGHT be an indicator of an issue). This can still be "worrying" when your baby is born because, guess what? - not every baby follows the average growth curve exactly. If they "drop percentiles" your health visitor might make suggestions for increasing feeding etc - but fortunately for an outside the womb baby there are a lot more indicators of health - i.e how they look, how active they are etc. I spent ages worrying about weight after this happened with my health visitor (after baby dropped between percentiles) - loads of family and friends (and even other health care professionals) pointed out she looked fine so I stopped taking her to get weighed.

Weight scans for unborn babies and weighing normal babies should obviously still happen - because it can help flag potential issues. But it helps to understand how the system works and what the limitations of it are.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I feel a bit better this morning! I guess the fact they don't want to scan me for another 4 weeks also means they aren't toooo concerned, and as a pp said 9 per cent is still in normal range, just small, and me and OH aren't big people, maybe baby is just taking after us. I guess I just didnt expect a rescan - but I suppose I should count myself lucky in some ways as I know not all NHS do the 33 week scan anyway so if I was at another hospital I wouldn't have known (or maybe that would have been better, haha!). Thanks also for the info on percentiles, interesting and hadn't appreciated that.

Hello,
My baby was born on the 9th percentile and was perfectly healthy, he is seven months now and has shot up to the 50th percentile so in my experience it was nothing to worry about. I had two late scans for growth and had to give birth on labour ward (instead of midwife led unit), the medical staff just play things safe.
Best of luck to you for the next couple months. Btw, 9th percentile was 6lb 3oz so not tiny at all, quite a nice size to give birth to!

Don't worry, although I know it's easier said than done. Lots of premmies are born smaller & thrive. Also, mine was on the 99th percentile last time but all was fine-just a big baby. He's 3 now & evened out. We're all different sizes & they'd have had you back sooner if they're worried.

Stay calm & good luck