Baby 10th percentile at 38 week scan

[Lizbiz89]

Basically the short story is I'm being monitored because I take thyroxine. My original consultant said I was technically low risk so I would only need one additional scan at 34 weeks. However another consultant after that scan (everything normal) booked me in for a 38 week scan.

I was a little dubious as I know from previous pregnancies how inaccurate these scans are. Anyway I went for it this morning and now they're slightly concerned because the baby is measuring 10th percentile (6.8pounds).

I've had to ring a number to inform them and they said the midwife would call me. Has anyone else had any experience of this? This is my third baby and they have been so off with weight with my other babies that I don't know what to think. Plus she couldn't even get the babies head measurement as he was so far down. Then she was really struggling to get the stomach measurement. Any advice would be really appreciated.

I think mine was 12th, she's still a little small but perfectly healthy at 19 months. I thought if it was over 5th percentile they don't worry. 10th might seem really low but realistically it means nothing.

Completely healthy pregnancies and both my babies were 9th centiles.

still means heavier than 10%

Thank you for your replies. That's really reassuring. I think it's because both my babies were 8 and 9.3 pounds so they go off that as well. I've had really bad MS in the pregnancy so haven't been eating anywhere near as much as I did with my first two. They also really struggled to get any measurements at all as he was so far down and squished. Just feel like it's added to my anxiety unnecessarily.

My little girl was on the 3rd, but I was having growth scans for a different medical reason that didn’t necessarily mean a small baby (quite the opposite!) I was ultimately induced due to the concern over baby’s size she was 5lbs10 so the scans were pretty accurate. I think to be honest she was just small as is still very petite now (but healthy and thriving). There concerns at static or reduced growth compared to other measurements of that pregnancy (shouldn’t be based on last ones) is usually placenta failure / maturing but they will have done a Doppler on you to check placenta flood flow to make sure it’s ok as part of the growth sacn. If they really had concerns they would suggest inductions, so as they haven’t I wouldn’t worry!
the midwives I spoke to always warned me to take what the consultants say with a pinch of salt as well as they are only there to find and support higher risk pregnancy and sometimes can’t see the wood for the trees I’d you get me . If you and the baby (heart rate, organ development etc) are both healthy it doesn’t matter the size, averages are made from all ranges of the spectrum!

My first daughter was born weighing 6lbs 3 and on the 8th centile so I had to have extra scans with my 2nd daughter, she always plotted on the 10th centile and was born weighing 6lbs 10.

Thank you for the replies. A midwife called me today and said that if I was happy with babies movements then she wasn't too concerned. She said that as they hadn't even managed to measure the babies head then the predicted weight was likely to be inaccurate. I've got a consultant appointment tomorrow which was booked before this scan so I will discuss with them then.

My first dd was born at just over 6lbs. Honestly I don't remember it ever even being mentioned that she was small, it certainly wasn't an issue. She was perfectly healthy and actually quite long, just a skinny wee thing. She's a 5'8" lanky 13 year old now.

The only thing is that is has triggered growth scans in my subsequent pregnancies, even though I have had a 7.5lbs baby and a 10lbs baby since I have still been sent for extra scans in my current pregnancy.

That's still a perfectly healthy weight. 10th centile is still within the centiles of normality. One of my DC was so small at term he was off the centiles. Still tiny as an adult and it just isn't a problem if you don't think it is.

Our little guy was 1st percentile (dropped suddenly from 33rd in 2nd trimester). Scary situation at the time that was fortunately all ok in the end. The good news is that you’re 38 weeks. If they had any concern, they wouldn’t hesitate to get the baby out. Glad to hear you’ve got good movements, that’s really important. Also please bear in mind the scans can be very inaccurate, even towards the end of pregnancy. I think we were told to expect an 20% margin of error (our scan 2 days before birth said 4.5lbs and he was 5lbs in reality, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but was a huge difference). At 1 year, and being mini the whole first year, our son is suddenly growing like a weed, eating everything and chunking nicely 😂. Hopefully you’re enjoying baby snuggles asap x

My ds was born on the 6th percentile at 6 pounds 11 (I'm not in the UK) he's 2 now and he's on the 75th percentile . Sometimes babies are just small.