35 weeks - abdominal circumstance 97% but baby estimated weight 50%

[DJBebe]

Hi. Is anyone here with experience in scans measurements?
I had a scan today and the baby's head circumference and femur lenght are small 14% & 12% but the abdominal circumference is huge at 97%. Fetal weight is at 50%. I am so confused!

Why is my baby's abdominal circumstance so huge compared with the reast of the measurements when not even the weight too heavy either? 😳😣

Mine was exactly the same at 35 weeks. They just said he will be a chunky (but not necessarily heavy) baby with a big tummy. I am having a c section anyway as my pelvis was too narrow to deliver my daughter, but when I saw the consultant she said if I hadn't made my mind up about having one then she would definitely recommend one now!
Can you ask your midwife/consultant to explain what it means for you? Did they give you an estimation of weight? Mine was measuring approx 5lb 15 at 35 weeks so on the larger side but not massive. Plus they were almost 2lb out regarding my daughters estimated weight!
Good luck x

I'm pretty sure those measurements have a wide margin of error.

Thank you. The estimated weight was 5lb 11oz. x

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Mine was the same, but at 28 weeks, his legs dropped off the chart. It looked like we were going to have a Buddha from the scan measurements. I had to be scanned a few extra times and in the end was induced as his leg measurements took his estimated weight down below the 5th centile. He was born small (5lbs) but seemingly in proportion. Happy to report he is now 6 months old and perfect: very strong legs and not Buddha-like in the slightest!

I had two growth scans that showed my DD as having a 97th centile abdominal circumference, with femur length I think about 75th and head circumference about 50th. This gave an overall estimated weight of the 90th centile which they weren't concerned about, however they were concerned that her large abdominal circumference could lead to an increased risk of shoulder dystocia so advised against my planned home birth.
She arrived last week (accidental home birth and delivered by my DH due to speed!) And weighs exactly what they predicted, she is a fairly chubby little thing but I would expect that at her weight and her abdomen doesn't look any bigger than any other baby's
Ask your midwife at your next appointment and see what she says but I personally wouldn't be overly worried unless they stated concern at the scan.

Thank you. At the scan the sonographer said all is within normal parameters but when I got home and saw the report i started to worry. I have my next app with the midwife next week and I'll ask her. 😊

A baby in my family had an unusually large abdominal measurement. The baby was fine - a big baby, but perfect proportions.

The abdominal measurement can vary quite a bit, I was told, depending on how full their stomach is. I hadn't realized until a scan that babies in late pregnancy spend quite a lot of time drinking their own fluid and peeing it out again. So depending where they are in that absorbing cycle the measurement can go up and down.

As other people have said, these scans are notoriously pretty unreliable at estimating the accurate measurements. There are also different views on what an average measurement should be (try putting the same numbers into an online calculator and you'll get different percentiles). And of course it's hard for most people to know exactly how pregnant you are. One of mine was exactly average size at his 19 week scan, other than his transcerebellar measurement which was tiny. This would have been worrying, but I knew that he was in fact only 18 weeks because of my own dates. And apparently this structure doesn't start growing very much until then. In fact he turned out to be almost ten pounds at 39 weeks (or 38) so was simply big everywhere else!

In other words, there are so many shifting point of data. Your little one will be perfect.