Small baby at 36 weeks.

[Imavinoops]

Had a 36 week scan yesterday and it appears baby is measuring a little small. She was spot on at 20 weeks but is now 10th cantilever at 5lbs 1oz. Tummy has been measuring a week or so behind at the last few midwife appointments and is now about 3 weeks behind in that regard. I've been referred to the Fetal Medicine Unit at our hospital and we are waiting to hear whether they want to do any more scans. I'm not really panicking or anything, I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced anything similar?

I was told by my midwife that both tummy measuring and scans are notoriously unreliable as there are si many variables including mother's build and pelvic structure and how the baby is positioned etc. If all else is well and you are experiencing plenty of movement chances are that everything is fine.

Not me but this has just happened to my friend.
They ended up inducing her at 37+1 and he was born 5lb 2
He's very fit and well. It's just her placenta wasn't giving him enough to grow so he's better on the outside.

Yep, this post could have been written by me! Cue extra scans etc.

In actual fact DD born on due date weighing 7lb8.

These measurements very unreliable from what I've heard

Try not to worry xx

Yes, happened to me. I had a Doppler scan to check the placenta function- have you been offered one? Then weekly growth scans.

At one point the plan was to induce on my due day but as the Doppler was ok I was able to go into labour naturally.

In the end, my 'max 5lb' baby was 8lb 1 at 13 days overdue.

My point being... scans can be wrong so don't worry unnecessarily! X

I an not a midwife, but when I did obstetrics in my nurse training, it was emphasised how unreliable trying to "weigh" a baby with a scan was.
Best of luck with it all.

Thanks everyone, you have put my mind much more at ease, will see what the FMU say next week and take it from there. Either way baby is still wriggling around and cause huge discomfort so she can't be doing too bad in there!

I had this but as it turned out, I had issues with my placenta and something called 'inter-uterine growth restriction'. I was induced at 38 weeks and my LG was born weighing 5lbz 8oz.. not as small as they'd thought and she was perfectly healthy :)

Try not to worry, as others have said the scans are often way out. The most important thing is that the placenta is functioning properly which can be checked with a Doppler.

I've had two small but very healthy babies. DD1 had intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) as the placenta failed towards the end and she weighed just 5lb 11oz at 40+5. She's nearly two now and a real
chunk!

DD2 was small for gestational
age and was 6lb 4oz at 38+1 but again healthy.

Some people just have small babies and small bumps. I'm average height and DH is nearly 6ft yet both of us weighed around 6lb at birth and were long overdue. I also had tiny bumps with both babies - I announced my 2nd pregnancy at 24w to work and nobody had noticed!