Short femur 33 weeks

[CUniverse]

Hello all,

First time posting on this board for pregnancy.

So I am 33 weeks and 4 days. I’ve had scans as normal, with 2 extra.

1 at 24 weeks in addition to my 20th because I had my 20th scan privately while in Amsterdam.

1 at 33 weeks which was a 4D bonding scan yesterday.

So 4 scans in total incl my 12 week scan, and have seen midwife to measure fundal height twice.

Everything has seemed normal to me and each time the med professionals I’ve seen have said everything looks perfectly normal in terms of growth and well with baby, so I’ve never second guessed anything. However, I just woke up randomly at 6am, and decided to go through the results and photos from the scan yesterday. I’ve seen that baby’s femur length is coming in small.
So I went back at looked at all other scans and sure enough, baby’s femur was below average on all scans, but it had never been flagged or mentioned at all. Of course now I’m panicking and feeling really upset that that this measurement has always been below average and has never been mentioned to me.

Granted I don’t consume that much calcium aside from my supplement (lactose intolerant) and I read that could be a factor especially in black women, but why wasn’t this detected in my bloods or mentioned by the sonographers? Or midwifes looking at my bloods that I’m possibly deficient? I’ve obviously googled and it could be a soft marker or dwarfism or downs.

My baby’s father is tall, and my 4 year old has really long legs. I’m 5,7... so this really has upset me and concerned me massively just coming to this realisation. Especially if there is something I could have done dietary wise to improve it.

From the baby’s face as we saw today, he doesn’t look like he had any noticeable indications in his face regarding defects. And the ultrasound tech said baby looked perfectly fine with placenta working sufficiently. Has anyone else had or is going through anything similar?
Sorry for the manic post but I’m just in total shock that this has been missed.

Chances are nothing has been missed at all. Average means that some will be above and equal numbers will be be,ow. It's not a minimum.

Don't worry (easier said than done!). All the experts have said your baby looks absolutely fine.

I have 2 tall children and one about average one if that helps :)

Completely understand how you feel. Also had femurs measuring short that nobody flagged and because I’m lactose intolerant and only had calcium in supplements I worried it was something I’d done.
I eventually flagged to my consultant who was so calm and said there was no concern as the measurements were growing each week even if the measurements were low. He also said it was hard to get exact measurements in a wriggling baby and even a couple of mm out could make a big difference in centiles. Didn’t stop me panicking all pregnancy - cause it’s only natural - but baby was born fine with average sized legs!
I’m sure everything is fine and if they had seen a worry they would flag it to you. Though completely understand the panic and worry x

You are bound to have some measurements smaller and other bigger. My DD always measured about average for head circumference, 90th centile for tummy and 20th for femur. No one was concerned at all and she was fine, they are only going to be worried if baby isn’t growing at all or if the measurement differences are very extreme or in the very low end ie measuring at 1%.

@chylerv and @Brobbles thanks for your understanding.
Yes the baby has been growing increasingly so that does help lessen the worry a little. It’s just that I feel stupid I didn’t notice it myself. I feel like once I get the results from a scan handed to me on paper, I try to look at what makes immediate sense (obviously not much), and then mostly go off what I’ve been told during the scan itself, from the answer to question I asked the ultrasound tech, and just taken for granted everything is ok from their feedback.

It’s just this one time I double checked the measurements myself after waking up suddenly, and then saw the femur length has always been below the average marker each time.

I’ve had lots of stress in my pregnancy and of course not had a high intake of calcium, so I’m putting the blame on myself all around really.

I will perhaps call my midwife after Christmas to discuss and perhaps get some advice. Not the best feeling to start Christmas Day with.
Hope everyone has a lovely festive time with their families xo

@SoupDragon that does help actually. With my daughter they kept going on about how she had super long legs... and I guess I would have expected the same for my boy, but, you’re right, size of kids on one family can differ. One of my older brothers is super tall and the other is below average height.

Being low in calcium (which I'm sure you're not anyway because you sound very clued-up) wouldn't cause short femurs. So please stop thinking you have done anything wrong. And, as PPs have said, pretty much every baby has something a bit under or over average on scans - it doesn't mean anything is wrong. Please try not to worry.

With my daughter they kept going on about how she had super long legs... and I guess I would have expected the same for my boy

Despite being taller, the boys in the house have shorter legs than the girls. I think I had longer legs than both my ex and my father despite being slightly shorter.

My DS had short legs all through my pregnancy. I was told at the time that wasn't a concern. They would only be worried if femur length tailed off as the pregnancy progressed. It really doesn't sound like you have any reason to worry.

Everything is measured in percentiles. The normal range will be vast, and the 'abnormal' range will be at the extremes, either end. But the range is in millimetres.

The difference between 5th centile (only 5 babies in 100 shorter) and 95th centile (only 5 babies in 100 longer) is 5 mm! So imagine that blurry, moving picture on the screen. The sonographer has to target the bottom of the femur, then the top. Even a tiny movement up or down can add or remove millimetres.

Try not to worry - they would have told you if there was a problem.

If the doctors haven't flagged anything then I wouldn't worry too much - one of my twins femur length has measured so small since 16 weeks (now 32 weeks) that it doesn't even appear on the chart - it's less than the 2.5th percentile - I get scanned every 2 weeks and the doctors are comfortable that she's just going to be small and there are no other issues, as long as she grows consistently they don't worry too much

I remember feeling similar when I was pregnant. I think the measurements were 90th for head, 60 something for stomach and 7 for femur. The staff weren't concerned but I was. Apart from never filling the legs in his baby grows at about 9-12 months he started being more in proportion. Now he's 4 he's average height, can wear his age in trousers okay and still has a big head! Sympathies as I remember frantically googling.

How short is short? What was the measurement? If no one mentioned it chances are your baby is fine. Do not worry! We all of us deviate from the median somewhere!

I had two short legged babies and two logn legged..according to the scans.. and one had a whopper of a head!
They all look perfectly normal! The two long legged ones ARE tall (boy now 6ft 1 girl 5 ft 9) the other two are 5 ft 10 (boy with whopping head.. he grew into it) and girl 5 ft 3... who does complain that she dipped out on the height gene :)

All perfectly fine as they grew.. babies vary.. people vary!