Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

Flip

Original poster

Short femurs at anatomy scan!

15 replies

Mary9104 · 13/12/2023 10:52

I’m 20 weeks pregnant and recently had my anatomy scan which revealed that the size of the head was 6 days ahead of my current date, while the femur length measured 5 days behind my current date. 5-6 days difference doesn’t really make any difference they said. But the difference between the head size and the femur length is about 1,5 week if you add the days, together, which sounds like a big difference being only 20 weeks. I’ve already done the NIP test so no very low risk of DS and all markers at the anatomy scan were normal. I’m short myself with a larger than average head size and short legs but not sure if the genetics would be visible already at only 20 weeks!? Has anyone had any similar experiences with femur length behind behind head size? Please share as I will be worrying the rest of the pregnancy 😭

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

KnickerlessParsons · 13/12/2023 11:07

I have a bigger than average head and shorter than average legs and I've done ok! I'm short (5'2") but there are worse things in life....

Crababbles · 13/12/2023 11:12

If they’re saying not to worry, try not to worry. These measurements can be a bit off (it’s hard to measure a little wriggly baby!).

Fipfop · 13/12/2023 11:17

My daughters scans all said short femur compared with other measurements, think below 10th centile. She was born nearly 8lb and completely in proportion. Apparently femur measurements are not very accurate!

DuploTrain · 13/12/2023 11:20

It’s very hard to measure a tiny wriggly baby.

Scans can be wildly off.. I had scans late in my pregnancy which put my baby’s weight over the 90th centile - when he was born he was 40th centile.

If there was something that was concerning they would have told you. Try not to worry.

Original poster

Mary9104 · 13/12/2023 11:22

Me too haha, it’s although hard to find a hat that fits and pants are always too long😂 I was just worried about fatal Achondroplasia but it seems to be really rare overall..

OP posts:

MissCordeliaPreston · 13/12/2023 11:26

I remember googling this at around your time after one of my scans and panicking. Healthy baby. Don't worry!

ActDottie · 13/12/2023 14:29

Scans are not very accurate. I’ve been told baby is massive and off the scale in size which initially worried me but when I researched it some more I realised how inaccurate scans are which I felt reassured by.

romdowa · 13/12/2023 14:47

I had a scan when I was around 30 weeks which said my dc feumers where on the 0.01 percentile and his head the 95th. I spent the next two weeks waiting for another scan in a haze of anxiety. The next scan showed that the measurements where nowhere near that and he's now two , he's a bit short but he's perfect . These scans are definitely not always accurate

PollyPeep · 13/12/2023 14:48

Yes! I have had this! My last pregnancy, at every scan (12, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36 weeks - so not a one off!), everything else was around 50th-60th centile but femers were between 3rd-5th centile. Head around 1 week ahead but femers 2-3 weeks behind. I went out of my mind with worry as we're both tall, so no family reason for it. Worried about it being a soft marker for DS, although NIPT and anomaly scan were ok. Midwives and sonographers were not concerned and said femers weren't a particularly useful measurement.

Baby was born absolutely fine! Born around 50th centile for length and now at 18 months he's around 50th centile for height. He's meeting his milestones so far. He's shorter than my eldest son who is 99th for height (!) but he's healthy and not noticeably small compared to other toddlers. I have absolutely no clue why the femers were ridiculously short throughout pregnancy but it was fine in the end. I hope your baby is absolutely fine too x

Original poster

Mary9104 · 13/12/2023 18:54

@PollyPeep Thank you so much for sharing! It’s reassuring to hear that everything went well in the end !

OP posts:

toomanysausages · 13/12/2023 22:15

My daughter's femur measured short the whole way through pregnancy. DH and I are both shorter than average and the sonographer said that it was probably because of this. Dd born 6 months ago without any issues. She is on the smaller side but so was I. Hope this helps OP

MissFancyDay · 13/12/2023 22:23

I had this at the scans of both mine and worried a bit I have to admit. However they are now 5ft11 and 6ft3 with long legs so...

toddlermam · 13/12/2023 22:30

If they were concerned in any form then they'd be referring you over to fetal medicine - have they done that? Even then it can be nothing.

BrimfulOfMash · 13/12/2023 22:30

OP: this is a tiny discrepancy, don’t worry.

Original poster

Mary9104 · 14/12/2023 15:16

@toddlermam no they said the measurements can vary one week in both directions so it still falls within normal range

OP posts:

Flip