Short femur length in 28 week scan, please advise

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Hi
I had a 28 week scan due to some bleeding and they had to do a scan to check if things were ok, normally I wouldn't of been offered a scan as i was at low risk for everything.
In my 28 week scan they noticed that the femur length (legs) was short and everything else was fine, however as it was small they told me that they will monitor me closely. Since then i have been goggling everything and it made me worry and really stressing at the moment .
If anyone has any experiences please share.
Length is showing on 47 at 28 weeks.

Appreciate any advise ! Thanks

I know it's a ridiculous thing to say, but try not to worry.

I had my first, and during my pregnancy I was told he's measuring small, he's measuring big, etc etc. I decided after much worry that other than take it easy and look after myself there wasn't anything else I could control.

I ended up having a c section due to 'his measurements' and low and behold he came out absolutely perfect. Save your worry for when your little one arrives, and if you can be kind to yourself that is the best thing you can do for them at this stage.

Congratulations!!!

Hello, what centile is that on? I had the same with my dc, i can’t remember numbers but they were just above the 3rd centile, so always big enough for them not to investigate further. I had two weekly scans for other reasons and femur always small. Everything else was always measuring big and I stressed myself out so much about it after googling! All was fine though and actually my dc does just have short legs, not noticeable though!

They said things like that with both my babies. Lots of stress and worry.

Born completely fine.

I don't think those scans are very reliable. it's good they are vigilant but it can be worrying when you get flagged like that

I would 100% ask for a second opinion, perhaps pay for a private scan if you can.

they said this to me with my first, I also had a low lying placenta so had another scan at 36 weeks, the placenta had moved up but they said babies legs were still measuring small and they didn’t think she had grown since 20 week scan, long story short, traumatic emergency C-section and they got it wrong. My daughter is so long and leggy. I’ve never quite forgiven the doctor, the pressure he applied sent me into a depressed spiral.

Thank you for the advise, its good to have scans but they 100% make you more anxious

I have just attached a pic.

Yes you are right scans sometimes don't help and make you feel 100% worse.

Please don’t worry. I had loads of extra scans and the measurements varied wildly.

I don’t think they can measure that accurately to be honest - it completely depends on the angle of the baby.

Good that it’s being monitored, but there’s really nothing to be gained by being stressed about it. Difficult I know, but try not to worry.

DD was measuring small. I'm tiny so it was no huge surprise really. Like others have said, try not to worry although I know they can be hard.

Oh and I had to have regular growth scans because of her coming up as small. She was 8lb 3oz when she was born and I'd had a MW telling me at 32 weeks that she might end up in SCUBU as she was likely to be very small.

Ok that looks similar ish to where mine was plotted. Also they started off bigger then were measuring smaller like yours too.
I totally get your worry as I was the same, but really try not to stress yourself over it. Likely your dc just has short legs like mine, or femurs were just in a difficult place to measure. From having 100s of scans in my pregnancies I’ve noticed the measurements can vary a lot - they’re measuring a really small area so just a slight mm difference can put them down the chart. They’ll keep an eye which is good but very likely all will be okay

Thank you so much, i hope everything goes well too its just hard not to stress

My DC2 was measuring small at 29 weeks. We ended up with so many extra scans and hugely stressful. My consultant said that femur length was the measurement most likely to be inaccurate. Head measurements are the most accurate. DC was above average in size when he was born at 39 weeks.

Yes i had this. Femur length dropped off the chart at one point. Long story short, my lovely baby was born perfect with little (in proportion) chubby thighs.
Apparently femur length is quite difficult to gauge . Don't stress.

Thank you glad it went all well

Thank you for the advise, glad all went well

Hi there, just stumbled across your post whilst googling myself crazy. Literally the same thing happened to me this week. Had 28 week scan and femurs plotting below 5th percentile basically same as yours on the graph. Had a call from fetal medicine today and they want to see me in 2 weeks to recheck growth. Feeling so stressed as keep reading about risks of dwarfism etc.

My baby had short femurs from 20 weeks, I’ve just checked my notes and at 28 weeks hers were also 47. (I’ve attached my graph)
I also read a lot online and to be honest it ruined parts of my pregnancy worrying about it so
much. I was out under consultant care and was scanned regularly, I was also advised of increased risk of certain things.
Outcome was a small baby, she was 4lb8, shes 16 months and still petite but she’s absolutely perfect.

My daughter's femur length was on a similar centile I think. She's 2 now and the only issue is that I often need to roll her trousers up at the bottom 😂

To answer more seriously: she was born smallish but not tiny (6lb 2oz). She's now 50th centile for height, but does have a slightly longer body and shorter limbs. You wouldn't notice though 🙂

Thank you so much thats so helpful, they will scan me every 3 week to check if the growth is still growing and not staying in the same plot.
Did the measurements go up weeks later or stayed the same?
Thanks so much again for your answer, Im so grateful people spare the time to respond.

I was told my ds femurs were measuring on the 0.01 percentile at one scan , next scan two weeks later he was on the 6th. He born at 7 pounds 11 and completely in proportion. He's one now and he's just a bit short 🤣

No problem at all, I spent hours trying to find others online in the same situation so always like to try share my experience when I can.
I had scans every 2 weeks and her femur always grew between scans ( other than maybe once) but was always below the bottom percentile line.
Her head and AC were usually around 40th percentile so I was surprised she was born such a low birth weight when the other measurements never really indicated that.
Just to add, I am only 5’2 and my husband is 5’8 so although not totally the reason her femurs were small that would have contributed which is what fetal medicine told me when I was originally sent to them.

I also had a scan at 28 weeks and had some interesting scan results. My baby’s head was showing as high percentiles and femurs very low. I spent hours looking into this and was stressed out for a lot of my pregnancy so I just wanted to let you know you’re not alone. I had scans at 32 and 36 and again femur length was very low. My baby was born 3 months ago and he is absolutely fine. He does have short femurs, but is all in proportion.

My main point is please don’t spend hours stressing about this. Just listen to the experts and if they’re not worried then try and accept this. In the end I had nothing to stress about and my baby was perfectly healthy and I spent so much energy worrying about it.

Good luck for the rest of your pregnancy!

Oh so glad everything went well. Thank you for the advise, the consultant did say don't worry as there is no signs of other things to be concerned but they will still monitor me closely to check how its going.
Obviously i had to ask what can the causes can be and they told me the the worst ones but told me to not to worry as this wouldn't be the case but obviously there is always a risk. So I started googling since which i shouldn't have. But the chat made me better.
Thank you so much.

Hi

So sorry just seen this comment.
My scan is in 3 weeks time, still stressing but feel much better reading these comments.
Do you have a graph to compare. Hope it goes well and do let us know of the outcome. my due date is in Jan just hoping everything goes smoothly