Please help. Femur measuring 3 weeks behind at 34 weeks

[smokealarm]

Can anyone call me down?

Had a growth scan at 32 weeks (I'm scanned regularly due to a previous late loss), and our baby's femur length had dropped from 20th percentile (from 28 week scan) to 9th percentile. Re-scanned today at 34 weeks and the femur has dropped to below the 5th percentile or 3 weeks behind.

The humerus is measuring 2 weeks behind.
The baby is measuring on the 30-40th percentile for everything else including head circumference.

I've been referred to a fetal medicine consultant on Thursday for another scan but in the meantime I've been googling and it comes back with the possibility our baby may have Down's syndrome or dwarfism.

I had the Harmony test done privately in early pregnancy which came back negative to rule out Down's syndrome but nothing is 100% is it?

Can anyone shed some light?! I'm crying and panicking and DH away for work so no one to talk to.

I just feel so unlucky given our history of losing our son in a previous pregnancy. To get so far along again and for something to go wrong just has me in bits.

help plz i am so tensed since i get to know in ultrasound that my fetal femur length is 3 week behind i got a growth scan in 35 week when it came to know fl is 3 week behind and 60mm and fetal weight was 2191 kg
now in 37 week ultrasound growth scan it states short femur 3 week behind again with 67 mm fl fall 4th centile ,and baby weight is 2819..i m so so worried bcz of this does my bbay have any abnormalities or what ? can any one tell plz anyone have experienced this...

Ηello - promised i would respond to any similar case. I was on exact the same situation with fl measuring approximately as per your measurements (maybe even a bit lower) Baby was born PERFECTLY. Almost 5 months now and THRIVING. To be honest i opted for amnio as i was scared and got the results quite late (around 37/38 weeks). I did it mainly to reassure myself and not worry after pregnancy. Wish i could have enjoyed my last months -that femur measurements got me spiraling. WISH YOU ALL THE BEST TO U AND UR BABY🙏🏻🩵

thankuu so much for this,, you dont know but u made my dayy and yes i am hoping and moving forward pray for me,, blessings for u and family

Hello dear i assume you’ve had your baby by now. Can you share an update? Im in the same situation and spiralling out of control in the last weeks of this pregnancy. It’s also my first pregnancy after 2 years of trying and im very new to all these issues. My baby’s femur measurements have been 2 weeks behind for gestational age from the 22 week scan, then on the 31 week and last at 37 weeks. Also the rest of the measurements have been a little below the 50%. So im hoping ill just give birth to a small baby. The baby’s weight at 37 weeks was 2600gr

hello mama, ive seen your username in some other posts and i think you also had your own thread here. Im so happy to see you had your baby. Im kind of in the same situation and currently worrying myself sick. If you would be so kind to dig through your scans and share your measurements for femur length at different weeks. I know nothing will change for me, i guess im just looking for similar situations with a positive outcome to console myself.

Hello - i hope u could somehow stop worrying about this. This anxiety really ruined my pregnancy and i wish my words would somehow help mommies feel -somewhat- better. But having beem in your shoes i know there’s nothing to help u feel 100% sure that all is ok. And its ok to feel anxious but please, trust that everything is going to be ok. All measurements from 30 weeks an on were below 5%. Few times below 2.5%. I can find the mm if u want. My gynos secretary had the same issue with measurements beeing even lower than mine so she was trying to support me mentally. I went to 3 diff docs because i was panicking. There was not consistency. Some times they measured the femur shorter than the previous time etc. one day one doc placed measurement on the 5% percentile , next on the 11%. Femur would measure up until last scan (1 day before birth) very low. No other measurements were off, it was an isolated case (short femur length). Also, Baby now 7 months and wears pants for 9-12m😂 no doctor will ever say “baby is 100% ok”, they would not risk even for 0.0001%. Tbh one of the docs i went actually said “i bet ur baby is ok, stop worrying i can arrange a c-section tomorrow to prove it to you”( as a joke) - in other words, ur psychology has to be positive and your docs have to find a way to reassure u. How have ur resutls been so far?

Thank you so so much for all you said. Reading these during my pregnancy really helped me a lot with the anxiety. I actually gave birth feb 28 to a healthy baby boy. He was a little small, 2.8kg. But other than that it was all fine. It was just like you said that te doctors can never really say 100% baby is fine. But my doctor convinced me till the moment i gave birth that my baby was going to have down syndrome. Mine was also a case of isolated short femur length, no other markers. I don’t know why my doc insisted so much that my baby has down syndrome. I had previously followed every scan and test and nothing came up until the femur started to measure short. And even that, this baby is small but has long legs just like his mama and papa😂. Anyways i want to thank you once again for sharing, im sure you’ve helped a lot of other anxious pregnant mamas just like i was. Im happy your baby is thriving and wish you all the best❤️