Fetal medicine unit referral help

[ComebackQueen]

Hi ladies

I’m currently in a day assessment Unit hooked to a machine but before they did this, I was told I was referred to the fetal medicine unit. Sonographer said baby plummeted in weight from 48 percentile to below 10. Couldn’t get a picture of stomach clearly but what she could see she sent me straight to the assessment unit

Husband was kicked out and I’m still crying alone and midwife being vague.

Anyone help me understand what’s happening?

How many weeks pregnant are you?

I have no advice but wishing you and baby are well.

I think you the only place to get answers is from the MW and team.

Sounds awful and I’m sorry you’re going through this.

Hope you're ok OP! It's so scary, especially when you are on your own.

They are probably being vague as they might not be 100% sure what's going on.

What's the time frame between the scans? How many weeks are you now?

I don't have the same experience but wanted to wish you well.

We were sent to fetal medicine and had an appt through 2 days later, I hope you don't have long to wait.

Hey ladies

Only 28 and 5 days

Midwife is getting a consultant to see me based on this machine thing they hooked me up to.

The referral has been made and my online portal shows I have an appointment on Thursday!

They couldn’t see the baby’s stomach on scan and when I went from 48th to below 10th the green notes shows 7th it’s panic stations.

I have high resistance but my scan today showed low resistance and everything else except stomach was within range.

I’m now waiting for a consultant to come down.

Don't panic. It's very scary but you're in the right place and the fetal medicine doctor will be able to make a plan with you. Weight dropping is scary as it can be a sign of reduced blood flow but equally I know lots of mums who had babies with much worse stats than that who are here now and totally fine.

Can you press your call button and ask for someone to come and sit with you for a minute? Explain that you're terribly anxious (understandably) and you need someone to tell you what the plan is.

When I spent weeks hooked up to those monitors, I used to manage my anxiety by speaking mantras to myself in time to her heartbeat. She is still safe, she is still safe.... we will manage, we will manage... breath in, breath out etc.

To clarify when sonographer managed to get the baby’s stomach is GA was measuring almost three weeks behind

@October2020 I’ll press the buzzer now and get a midwife to come calm
My nerves.

I know it's scary. We had lots of these moments when I was pregnant. If the midwives are too busy ask if there is a HCA or volunteer who might be able to. And we can sit with you on here whilst you wait.

I hope the midwife can give you some answers or at least tell you what the plan is. Try to stay calm you are in the best place possible.
Offering a hand hold.

Thank you so much ladies
The Midwife said CTG looks fine, consultant reviewed all scan and CTG data and can’t see what could cause the drop.

I need to come back for another CTG on Wednesday and then I have the scan on Thursday so based on that they’ll know more.

Placenta statistics were also within the mean range so she said she didn’t know why it plummeted.

Blood pressure was ‘text book’ urine was clear, glucose test normal, pre eclampsia ruled out.

Consultant is happy for me to go home as I’ll be back in Wednesday and then Thursday.

Midwife knows I had bad HG and recently was self isolating due to NHS track and trace so said those factors may be at play. I admit when I was pinged I did all but stopped eating as I had bad congestion and due to HG when I was vomiting I felt like I was choking so did deprive myself of food for at least a week and mainly kept my fluids up. But she said May and didn’t sound too convinced.

Midwife said by Thursday we will have a better picture so told me consultant is happy for me to go home and rest.

She was asking me about mat leave and things and I said I have rolled over AL from last year so have almost two months that my work want me to take by the end of the year. She said maybe I should consider using some for this week so I can relax and attend the appointments.

Thank you all once again for your helpful and supporting replies.

I’ll update on Wednesday and Thursday if you don’t mind.

Hopefully we will know what’s happening and I’ll have a clear plan of action.

Btw from all what Google tells me on FMU referral - it was all doom and gloom so I’ve now banned myself from researching anything more!

Glad to see you’ve got a plan going forward. I remember the feeling well and it’s not nice so I hope you’re doing ok.

When I was referred to fetal medicine (for a different reason to you but I also had baby’s weight and stomach measurement drop later on) I found them fantastic! They were really clear when explaining things to me and they were so kind when I was an anxious wreck. They’ll have seen it all before and they really know their stuff so you’ll be in good hands. Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions, and if you don’t understand their answer then ask them to explain again, they won’t mind. Save all your questions for them and definitely stay away from google!! Like I said, my experience was really positive and my baby turned out fine, but people don’t often bother to write on the internet if everything’s turned out ok.

Best of luck with everything. Hope it goes well on Thursday.

Yes don't Google. It is always the worst case scenario and you definitely aren't there. Let us know how it goes this week.

Glad you're feeling a bit better and can go home, keep us updated.

Google is the enemy sometimes.

Look up the saving babies pathway and ask if the hospital follows that.

My daughter followed between 5th and 10tn centile and I was under fetal med and was practically forced into early induction. This was in 2019 but since then new guidelines have been released about early induction. Babies between 3rd and 10th centile with normal dopplers are deemed to be most likely constitutionally small so they no longer recommend induction before 39 weeks.

You said you have high resistance? Is that your dopplers? Xx

@Nc4post99 thank you for such a helpful post, regarding high resistance I did have this on 20 weeks scan but 24 and 28 weeks showed all normal. As was fluid.

I’ve now had my scan and again besides baby’s stomach measuring small all other vitals were within range.

However, my CTG picked up I have a very high heart rate which is affecting baby.
I need to do twice weekly CTGs and 1x growth scans.

I’m waiting for a more thorough chat with the doctor so currently waiting for that but from what has been said I’ll be able to go home again but need extra monitoring and they’ll explain why shortly.

You’ll be having weekly growth scans? It’s great to keep an eye on baby to make sure everything is going ok but normally growth scans are at least 2 weeks apart, any closer and it’s hard to ascertain appropriate growth. They might scan you once a week for your arterial dopplers, it’s stressful but ultimately a good thing.

Do you typically have a high heart rate? Was this not picked up in your routine ante natal appointments? Could it have been extreme nerves at the time?

Ask what centile baby is on for efw and the centiles for head, femur and tummy. Reason I say that is because if baby’s head is 20th centile, FL are 15th and tummy is 9th baby is very much proportional, it’s just that under the 10th centile they consider ‘small’.

Hi @ComebackQueen I just wondered if everything was okay with your pregnancy? I have just been referred to FMU because of my babys heart rate being temporarily very low during an ultrasound yesterday (I'm 19 weeks) and I'm so so worried about what this means..

Hey @94kj

my son is now a healthy 2 year old over 75 percentile for weight at his 2 year check and 75 percentile for height.

once under the care of FMU you’ll have the best consultants and nurses monitoring you, be prepared for every three days going in for CTGs etc but I was literally watched with a Hawkeye and everything ended up being well.

they’ll be giving you a very detailed scan every two weeks and trust me, you’ll have all your answers when you go for your first appointment.

my son was born below the 10th percentile and very small in weight but besides an acid/allergy issue when born, he has been, God willing, a health and just as importantly, a happy baby.

you’re honestly under the best care, ask them as many questions you need answering and trust them.

you and baby will be fine and I’m sending you prayers and blessings.

Thank you so much for replying. This has made me feel a lot more reassured! So glad to hear your little boy is doing so well! My appointment is on Friday so keeping fingers crossed all is okay x