Weird measurements on growth chart

[brightbird]

OK so I was just reading an earlier thread where someone said two different professionals can get a measurement difference of 7cm on the same person. That's reassuring!

Just had my 31 week appointment and according to second measurement (different midwife) my bump has shrunk! I am highly sceptical of this and feel like it has grown, also baby seems to be happily playing around in there as normal so not hugely worried at this stage. But obvs I will be going for a scan and curious what the reason is.

Hoping it is just discrepancies in the measuring! Anyone can shed light /share experiences? I know they are often inaccurate but this seems particularly strange!

No offence to midwives, but measurements are only as good as the person taking them, and even then, they can be wildly off. In my last pregnancy I measured big all the way along. Then I had a midwife who said I was measuring small - sent off for a growth scan. At 10 days late, they estimated my son was 9lb 5. He was 10lb 5!

Try not to worry - they can be way out. I knew I was having a big baby - apart from that one, he measured big all along, and I was an ounce off 10lb myself

Thanks yeah, I expect it's a glitch due to different midwives but can't help going through other possible reasons!

It must be hard. I always found scans a more accurate gage, but even they can be off. In this pregnancy I had scans at 8 and 10 weeks and measured bang on my dates. Suddenly at 12 weeks I'm told I'm actually 13 weeks. I'm not worried about that - like I say - it must be hard to read sometimes, particularly if they're wriggling! I'm sure it will even out.

Enjoy your pregnancy

I was getting weird measurements and midwife was struggling to work out what was babies head/bottom so went for scan turns out baby was transverse and kept moving even on the day of the c-section!

Yeah I think they moved just before the appointment and had a bit (not sure if head or bottom) right down in my pelvis. So maybe that affected it!

My pregnancy growth chart looked like a dot-to-dot by the end of it. Up, down, up, stay the same, down, up... DD arrived bang on 50th percentile on her due date!

Haha
What would really annoy me is if this kind of thing makes them unhappy with me going ahead with a home birth, because otherwise I have had an extremely easy pregnancy with everything being fine!

It can be just how baby is lying. I shrunk a good few cms based on if baby was back to back or back to tum.

Imvho those measurements with the tape measure over the bump are total bollocks, I have no idea why they do them unless also taking into account height, specifically navel to pelvis distance. I am tall and have a particularly long and quite WIDE torso (thin, short legs!) and in my first pregnancy was always measuring under where I should have been and sometimes went 'backwards'. Sent for a growth scan and all normal. Baby 9 1/2 lbs. In second pregnancy I had growth scans anyway (for other reasons) and baby would be on 99th percentile according to scan and still under measurements when the midwife did them. In the end he was 10lbs (but born a couple of weeks early). AND I had extra fluid (according to surgeon who did eventual c-section). Bump was measuring about 31 weeks by then. Have heard exactly same thing from other bigger women, and the opposite from short narrow pelvised ones.