Random question

[user1493407412]

So might sound stupid but, I was reading my baby books and obviously it says about smoking during pregnancy and says it can make your baby size smaller, so how do doctors know they have the right measurements? Or is it just the baby's weight it affects?

It can cause all sorts of problems such as miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm birth, respiratory problems, heart defects to mention but a few. Google smokers placentas - there's no fibbing your way out of that one, the midwives will know straight away. Are you pregnant and struggling to quit OP? There's loads of help and resources out there, your midwife can help. It really is the best thing for your baby - and you.

They measure based on the average of healthy babies at the relevant gestation. Smoking starves the baby of oxygen stunting growth.

Thanks for the replies, I was a smoker until I found out I was pregnant at 8 weeks. I didn't smoke with my daughter but all her scans said her growth was slowed at around 28 weeks so she was born at 37 weeks. But I still don't get how if smoking can slow growth how the doctors get accurate measurements from scans? I must sound really stupid lol

I don't really understand your question tbh, sorry!

Do you mean that you think they've given you the wrong due date as it's based on the baby's size? Are you not sure of your dates?

I dont understand your question either but going to take a stab at an answer
... they measure your babies head/abdomen and leg length and that calculation gives an estimated fetal weight. They have a rough idea what a baby should weigh/how big it should be at a certain gestation, so when you have your scans and they measure your baby they compare those measurements against those of the 'average' baby and if your baby it lots lighter or lots heavier then that raises flags which could result in extra testing and extra scans.

But these measurements are not always accurate!

Thanks again for the replies, sorry to be confusing, it's just one of those things that have gotten stuck in my head because I don't understand it.. I might be confusing you all more here but for an example, say you got pregnant and at 12 weeks you had a scan to say you was 12 weeks, if a woman started smoking at this point and then went to the 20 week scan, would the scan show as 20 weeks or would the smoking have caused the baby's growth to show less than that, maybe 17-18 weeks? I don't get how the Drs and midwives can work it all out when the growth slows!

They have key measurements they take like length of the femur, etc. I'm at the stage now, however, where they just measure my belly with a tape-no scans- I don't see how this can be accurate at all, although this may be different in England.

They spot slowed growth because the baby would measure behind for dates. All the measurements would be smaller so they'd notice.
I'm not sure how much or how quickly smoking has an impact as I don't smoke myself but in answer to your question, yes they'd pick up on slowed growth at the next scan because the baby would be measuring behind - so in other words the 20 week baby would be measuring 17 weeks.

Yeah the baby would be behind on size/measurements. They know the gestation based on lmp etc so if you should be measuring 20 weeks going by dates but are only measuring the same as a 16 week baby's size they know it's below average. They're not just doing a scan with no previous information on you and guessing the gestation by the measurements, they have your dates so know what size they should be expecting to see.

Thanks, I think I understand it now, I feel so silly for not getting it before