growth scans and measurements not looking good

[ikklepig]

Slightly stressed so posting in case anyone else has experience of this. Currently 31w, first baby so I accept I may be worrying over nothing.

I find my cmw rushes and writes things in the book we haven't discussed or she hasn't done. So far she's listened to fetal heart beat only once, and measured me once. I'm usually in and out within 5 minutes.

Things have come to a head, as I had an additional growth scan at 28w which showed baby measuring 2-3 weeks behind. Looking back in my notes I see that when the cmw measured me at 26w, she measured 27cm. I say measured, but she found the number first on the tape measure (after asking how many weeks I was),placed her thumb on this then put the tape over my stomach which sure enough matched her 'measurement'.

I understand that fundal height and scans don't always match up. However, I've got more and more concerned following the growth scan so was sneaky and asked a friend who is a hospital based supervisory mw to measure me without telling her the other measurements. She measured me as 26cm after palpating my stomach etc- was quite shocked by this as nobody has ever done this before (cmw never has).

So, even with a substantial margin of error 26cm at 31w is way too small, and ties in with the growth scan at 28w which showed me measuring 2-3 weeks behind. I'm back with the cmw on Monday and feel I should raise this, but obviously this is now very awkward as I didn't rate her before and am even more inclined to question why she's not doing things by the book.

Any thoughts?

I understand why you are concerned. What did your friend midwife suggest after getting the smaller reading? What did they suggest at your 28 weeks scan. It sounds like you're getting plenty of medical intervention for problems to be picked up but if you are concerned about the growth then I would call the oncall CMW and ask if she would pop round to discuss / measure.

My friend was a bit annoyed that I hadn't told her the full story as she said she isn't supposed to offer medical advice outside of hospital setting especially as I'm not a patient- she did say that I need to bring this up on Monday and insist that they measure me at every appointment. She also said that I need to monitor movements etc and any changes to call my MAU.

I have another growth scan at 34w but they didn't seem overly concerned as baby was above 25th centile at 28w scan- it's more the fact that I now know that the growth doesn't seem to have continued or increased between 28w and 31w that I'm worried. I don't know if I should have another scan between now and 34w or whether this would even make any difference.

I've googled and it sounds like it could by IUGR as the head measurement looks better than the abdomen measurement and I know the consultant told me that the placenta and fluids looked normal. At 20w scan I was on 75 centile, so I've gone from 75th to just above 25th over an 8 week period and I'm worried that if they were to scan again I may be lower than 25th now

I don't think you should wait until 34 weeks. You need to speak to a midwife today and see if they can either put your mind at rest with some medical logic and reassurance, or refer you for a growth scan this week.

Call midwife triage, tell them your concerns. There's every chance they'll get you in for a scan.

I had a midwife like yours. It turned out it was very easy to switch, and now I'm seeing another one who is much more conscientious. All it took was a phone call.

You need to report her bad practice, she may be putting babies at risk! call her office and ask for her supervisor or if your got one of those supervisors of midwives leaflets at the beginning look up who you need to contact. Personally I wouldn't confront her directly, you don't need the stress when you're pregnant. It shouldn't be hard to change to someone else.

This pregnancy I've seen a lot of different midwives due to a house and area move and only once had a terrible one who I complained about to the GP surgery that I saw her at (they told me that I wasn't meant to see her anyway, that's another story though). So don't worry about getting another naff midwife.

I've phoned up to change my appointment to a different day and it turns out that my usual cmw is on annual leave so I'll be seeing a different one on Monday anyway so I've kept the original appointment. I didn't go into details over the phone or complain as I think I need to see what the midwife I see on Monday is like. I will ask about growth and if the measurements are 3cm lower than 31cm they should refer me back into hospital anyway. If they don't then I will just take myself into MAU on Monday afternoon and am prepared to sit and wait. I've monitored movements all day so far and it seems same as usual, if this changes I will go straight into MAU over the weekend

Thanks for your advice, I will ensure that by Monday lunchtime that someone will see me to discuss growth one way or another!