Baby measuring small

[CheekyandFun]

Hello. At my 20 week scan the measurements showed a small baby. Now i will have a scan every 2 weeks to monitor the progress. Has anyone had this experience? Does that mean early delivery or just a small baby?

Not necessarily early delivery they'll just want to keep an eye, my last baby measured small on growth scans, they never mentioned early delivery and I went into labour naturally at 39 weeks, he was born in 3rd percentile but he is completely healthy just small for his age. I'm pregnant again and will have to have serial growth scans. I wouldn't worry too much especially if they had no other concerns, some babies are just small.

Thank you so much for your reply. That's what i thought, some babies are born small. It's good to hear someone's else experience, i appreciate it.

This is very common and is mostly nothing to worry about. Mine both measured small, both perfectly average now. Take comfort that you're having close monitoring.

I’ve had this with both of my pregnancies.

Please don’t worry, there’s loads of time to catch up and some people just have smaller babies. It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong.

Extra scans will monitor progress and the efficiency of your placenta.

They may increase the time between scans if there’s weight gain, it doesn’t mean you’ll be up the hospital every 2 weeks until birth.

They may offer to induce you early (39 weeks) or not let you go over 40 weeks.

Being under the 10th may mean you have to go to the labour ward rather than midwife birthing unit. Unless you’re having a c section.

Hope this helps.

I had extra growth scans from 32wks as there was concern that baby was small despite maintaining the growth curve and placenta functioning well. This combined with a few of incidents of reduced movement (some more anxiety driven than others) was enough to lead the consultant to recommend induction from 38wks.

In the end I went into hospital at 38+3 for induction and gave birth bang on 39wks to a beautiful baby girl weighing 6lb 8oz.

Try not to worry too much, scans are very much subjective, especially later on in the pregnancy and there’s a variation of up to 15% either way so just because they appear to be measuring small doesn’t mean they will actually be worryingly small.

I'm also being scanned every 2 weeks. Baby was under the 3rd percentile so they were talking about induction at 37 weeks, but at the last scan she was on the 8th so if she stays there (or anywhere above the 3rd) I can go into labour naturally.

I had the same. Baby wasn’t born until 42 weeks and was just above tenth centile. As long as baby keeps growing it’s fine, they just don’t want it to slow or stop. I moved to scans every 4 weeks after a few.

I had a consultant scan today prior to the 20th week scan as baby was measuring small she said 8th centile. Am only 20+5 today second pregnancy. First baby was born 6.7 .. Ive had bloods taking to rule out any infection and have been offered the needle into stomach to check chromosome however, I will not be having this (personal choice). Today at scan they said everything seemed fine like blood flow babys structure, but of course I am worried sick. Anyone been in this situation before? Any advice/ support would be appreciated right now 🙏

I was warned that my 4th would be small. There had been lots of concerns from 18 weeks around various issues including Edwards (a long time ago before NIPT etc). I was scanned weekly for lots of weeks and had lots of extra tests. We declined the invasive tests. Our daughter was born via planned CS due to previous 3 x CS at 38 weeks and was 6lb 4oz. Not small at all compared to her eldest sister who was 3lbs 11oz at 35 weeks due to pre eclampsia. She was healthy and happy and is now 26. Please try not to worry too much.