Growth scan - dropping centiles?

[Bee16]

Hi everyone, I've just had my 34 week growth scan and baby has dropped to under the 10th centile from around 40th at previous scan (30 weeks). They didn't seem overly concerned but have booked me another scan for 2 weeks time.

Has anyone else experienced this? Am I likely to be induced early? At the next scan is it only a worry if baby drops centiles again, and not if they stay around the 10th?

Yes this was me! If they keep dropping they will probably diagnose IUGR, regular scans and potentially an early induction. They will want to get you to 37 weeks before an induction if possible.

If baby is still around 10th percentile they might induce you early too. Sometimes baby growth with pick up again which is why they are scanning again. I think it needs to be drop of more than 30 percentiles in our area, and you are right on the boardline of that.

In the mean time advice to me was any change in movement go in for an assessment. Not reduced movements but any change in movement.

Thanks @Greyphoto, I suppose I'll find out more about what the potential plan is at the 36 week scan.

They did mention that they'd be worried if baby had gained less than 20g a day since last scan. When the chart was printed out it showed weight gain was 20.3g a day, so just on the cusp. Hopefully he has a little growth spurt in the next couple of weeks!

Yeah, but my 3% stomach baby is fast asleep so it usually means the placenta isn’t functioning properly and will keep an eye out.

I ended up having an emergency c section at 35 weeks as she dropped from 13 % to 3% …. 5 months on we are still at the 3 percentile so still growing and is full of personality…. Just needs to learn to sleep during the day 🤣🤣🤣

Trust your medical team If they say baby needs to come out , then baby needs to come out

Goid luck and enjoy the newborn cuddles

I’m in a similar boat, 33wks and just been told baby is currently 14th percentile 😕 have another scan scheduled for 2wks time. I’ve been ravenously hungry this week so hoping she’s just been slow to have a growth spurt and we’ll get better news at our next scan 🤞🏻

My IUGR baby was born on the 2nd percentile and is now 50th percentile for weight and 99th for height. Just incase anyone reading this panics their baby will always be small!

No affects and you wouldn’t know he was born early, doing really well at school and advanced in some areas.

That’s really reassuring to hear @Greyphoto I hope you don’t mind me asking but were you induced early or did you go to full term?

I was induced with my IUGR baby at 37 weeks, discovered he’d dropped off the charts when scanned at 36 weeks. He wasn’t even on the charts for the first few months and it’s been a slow burn but he’s now nearly three and on the 25th for height and weight and hitting / exceeding all milestones - they all go at their own pace!

This happened to me. Dropped to 9th centile at 37w scan (missed 36w scan due to covid isolation back in the days of the pingdemic!). Induction was offered and booked for 39w. But waters broke suddenly at 37+5 after my BP went through the roof when I stopped taking asprin and she was born at 38w exactly.

Birth weight was 5lb 12oz (2.6kg) ) but due to an unrelated issue, she developed sepsis and had 2 weeks in NICU. So she was 0.4th centile when we actually left hospital, but really long (75th centile for length. She was still classed as suspected IUGR.

At 16months old, she's now something like 60th centile and length roughly the sameat 75th? BF was hard when she was so tiny but she really took to weaning and caught up at around 1yr old.

All the newborn clothes we had were way to big so worth buying some "tiny baby" size bits. George at Asda, John Lewis and M&S all had nice bits when we were getting sorted to come home last year.

Mine did, they talked about inducing me but then he had a growth spurt. I did get induced in the end but only because I had re eclampsia, nothing to do with growth.

@PointyMcguire no worries ask anything you want. I made it to 37 weeks, got sent by the midwives for an assessment, growth scan etc and within 2 hours I was being induced. Heart rate was high and he had dropped further on percentiles. He was born a typical IUGR baby, very long and thin. Never chunked up or got the cute baby rolls. We had him weighed every 2 weeks for 3 months to ensure he was gaining weight as that’s what our HV recommended.

As he’s always been slim I found sickness bugs or illness when they don’t eat more stressful than my other child.