Growth Scans at 30 and 36 weeks

[MimiDaisy11]

I had my 16-week appointment with the midwife yesterday. She just basically gave me my blood results. Everything was fine in regards the syndromes they check for with a low risk which I'd expected as they'd told me at the time of the blood test that if there was a high risk, they'd call within the week. However, they picked up some hormones in my blood which suggest the baby could be born small. I didn't even know that was a test they were doing. And so because of that I'll be having growth scans at 30 & 26 weeks. Anyone else been through the same? How did it go?

What's strange is that at the 12-week scan they moved the due date forward by a week and I was thinking the baby was going to be big as I was pretty sure the dating for the due date I'd done was accurate given I'd used ovulation tests.

Hey! I’m guessing you mean low PAPP-A? I’m 35 weeks and had the same result suggesting baby could be small. They basically told me that it means my placenta MAY not be so efficient so growth could slow down the further you are (especially towards the end of pregnancy). The midwife I had was very not bothered about the whole thing and said it often means nothing they just like to monitor as it can mean smaller babies.
I’ve had 3 growth scans every 4 weeks from 26 weeks too and I’ve got another at 38 weeks.
So far babies been measuring on the 70th something centile at every scan which they said was great steady growth. At my last scan they estimated his weight to already be at 5lbs 12 so with 4/5 weeks to go id imagine Im on track for a chunky 8/9lber!
Don’t stress too much about it, I googled it a lot and most people seemed to have perfectly healthy sized babies. A few I found were induced around their due date as the growth had slowed a little but still nothing I could find was alarming.
Ive personally loved the extra scans as it’s just a great chance to see baby and get regular checks done!

Thinking it will be low PAPP A. I had the same with my baby (now nearly 2) and when I got the letter informing me I’d need growth scans I FREAKED and I’d never heard of it ! No reason to at all. Baby was an absolutely fine size in fact a bit big which caused issues pushing haha! Don’t worry they are being extra careful and it’s lovely to see baby extra times and it helped put my mind at ease towards the end. Congratulations

Also it doesn’t necessarily make you a ‘high risk’ pregnancy as long as everything else is normal so you can still try for water birth etc if that’s what you wish. Not that it worked out for me for stubborn baby reasons not PAPP A reasons

Thanks for the replies. It's good to hear experiences. The appointment was over the phone and she didn't say PAPP-A (not that I would know what that means) but I'll ask next time if that's what she meant. She just said it was to do with hormone levels. Everything else has been normal and she didn't seem that concerned with it as she did say it didn't mean there would be an issue. I guess you're right that it would be good to see the baby more with scans.

Thanks again!