Baby measuring on 82nd percentile already!

[Ellsx6]

Today I had a private anomaly scan at 19 weeks ..I have my nhs one in a few weeks time
Anatomy all looked perfect thankfully but looking at the report baby's
Abdominal circumference measuring a week ahead
Head circumference 4 days ahead
Femur 4 days ahead

So baby is on the 82nd percentile already.
At the 16 week gender scan his head was measuring 4 days ahead too. Me and DH both had big heads when born so I was expecting that but this has scared me a little.
I'm picturing having to push out a 11lb Buddha belly baby in 21 weeks time and now I'm petrified🤣
Sonographer said it just shows the placentas feeding him well and it's not a concern. Will the nhs raise him having a big belly if it's measuring a week ahead and if so what do they do for things like this?
What percentile was your baby and how big were they when born?

This is my first and all my mums children have been 7lbish so have no one to ask for advice on this!

Thanks in advance!

These scans are notoriously inaccurate. I’d note the information but not treat it as fact, or what will definitely happen.

Someone has to be on the 82nd percentile, someone has to be on the 18th.
Mine were all born around the 75th percentile which was around 3.8kg I think, 82nd is not much bigger maybe 4kg - around 9lb?
A big healthy baby but not anything to worry about.

Yes, don’t worry too much! My friend was measuring very far ahead and she is a tiny person herself and went a few days overdue so was quite concerned but her son was only 5.5lbs when he was born.

8% of babies will be bigger than yours at birth if yours is born at the 82nd percentile. That’s nearly one in every ten babies born.

Congrats on your impending arrival! 🎉 My DS were measuring 90th & 99th percentile from the time of their anomaly scans and continued on those trajectories. My first was 9lbs 8oz at 41 weeks and my second was 10lbs 6oz at 40 weeks. No GD or excessive weight gain, all of their measurements were in line with their centiles so they were just larger babies.

First was induced and a vaginal delivery, and second was a spontaneous vaginal delivery that was honestly so easy I managed on gas & air.

The scans are notoriously inaccurate but even if you do have a larger baby it's honestly not as terrifying as you might think. Both my deliveries were relatively straight forward. I didn't love being induced but the size didn't cause any problems.

@kc92 Thankyou!🤍

I've been blaming myself for making him 'big' because all I did was snack through the first trimester to keep sickness at bay and weeks 12-15 I honestly ate so so much as was always hungry. Appetites gone the last few weeks so not eating much now but I keep wondering if I've caused this by over eating..I have gained just over a stone myself too🤦🏾‍♀️I'm glad the births went well! Also worried I'll be scared into a c section as it's apparsntly dangerous to birth a baby via vagina if there big something to do with the shoulders..my heads all over the place right now! Over the moon because he's perfectly fine at my anomaly scan but worried somethings wrong that's why his measuring big..perks of pregnancy eh such a worrying time!

My baby was on the 90th+ centile throughout pregnancy but was born a completely normal 7lbs 12oz at 38+5 weeks. 80th centile is really nothing unusual.

Raised baby size and abdominal circumference can sometimes be a sign of gestational diabetes.
Your midwives should be checking your wee for glucose but if baby continues to measure large then you may be offered a glucose tolerance test to formally check if you've developed pregnancy related diabetes

You can’t make a baby big by eating… honestly the measurements / scans are so inaccurate in my experience. I really wouldn’t worry. I’ve had friends measured big throughout and have smaller babies, and vice versa.

I agree with pp that the scans are not very reliable. I know so many people who were given extra scans for tracking big or small and their actual baby's size didn't correlated to that at all

@SouthwestSis my urine wasn't taken at 16 weeks so I'm going to give a call tomorrow anyway about headaches I've been having and will ask if I could drop a sample in. They asked me to have a GTT test at my booking appt as I'm a couple stone overweight and that was fine but aware it can be developed at any point. Have another GTT booked at 24 weeks

@Ellsx6 I know those feelings well!! My youngest is 4 weeks old right now so literally just out the other side of it.

I had a really lovely midwife who talked some sense in to me - what you're eating can't make his bones grow any bigger. If it was just the tummy measuring ahead it'd be indicative of diet factors, but you can't snack his skull any bigger. A few days off between the head and tummy and legs isn't uncommon because the scans aren't ultra precise - they're measuring through your tissue & all the fluid while baby is wiggling.

I did face a lot of pressure to induce from doctors though. Turned it down 7 times in the last month of pregnancy. That's because of the perceived shoulder dystocia risk of bigger babies. I researched the actual stats of this and induction reduces the risk of shoulder dystocia from 6% to 4% I think it was. Most cases of this are actually from smaller babies too. & If shoulder dystocia does happen, it results in full recovery for the baby in 98.8% of cases I recall - though double check the stats. I personally felt that induction increased the risks of things going wrong, based on my personal experience with it.

Instead of focusing on that I did everything I could to have a good outcome. Ate healthy most of the time but still had the odd takeaway, focused a lot on optimal positioning and head engaging exercises from spinning babies website and did those religiously every day from 32 weeks, and did a lot of reflexology for induction. That was super relaxing even if I don't know if I fully believe in it even now. I also wrote out a really comprehensive birth preference list, with things noted down for every possibility. E.g. if my waters went early, if I had to have a CS, and felt that helped calm me because I felt prepared.

Unpopular but I also chose not to have an epidural because I wanted to avoid going down the intervention rabbit hole. Birthing a big baby isn't any more painful than birthing a smaller one - it doesn't make your contractions any more intense and the ring of fire is going to sting regardless of size.

I also did the GD test twice to firmly rule it out.

Best of luck with it, and try not to let this be a negative. If it is accurate you're going to have an adorable roly poly baby, and if it's not you'll soon forget this was ever part of your pregnancy journey.

It’s only 8lbs 13oz, which isn’t huge. I think just chill.

My daughter was around 20th percentile throughout so I was worried she’d be small, but came out 7.5Lbs. I wouldn’t worry too much!

As others have said, scans are notoriously inaccurate, particularly private scans. Believe I'm right that anyone can set up with a ultrasound - certainly was shocked when we realised our nearest Window To The Womb centre had no fully trained sonographer. I'd certainly not trust them on an anomaly scan.

Sure it'll be fine, all the best for the 20 week NHS scan! :)

Take it with a pinch of salt. My DD was predicted to be 9lb 8 on Monday... born on Wednesday at 8lb 8!

@AmyW9 I understand your concern as I learnt the same about window to the womb and had a shocking experience. I go to a clinic and see a current nhs midwife and sonographer who does private on Sundays..she has over 20 years experience so doubt what she's telling me is some crap from an untrained sonographer like window to the womb employs x

@kc92 Thankyou so much..this relaxes me loads! I think I'm hypersensitive about every detail after battling infertility for 4 years and nothing working I very randomly fell pregnant naturally after we gave up!! So perhaps I'm over worried about every single thing😅

That's good, but NHS scans are still the safest way to monitor baby's health and growth. Private clinics are unregulated, and there primarily to make money.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience at WTTW too - there was a BBC investigation into private clinics a few years back and I remember they featured heavily in it 👎🏻

I have had two babies around 11lb and it is fine

My son was born on the 99th centile. He was like a long eel!

He's 26 not and about 5 ft 9. So I doubt that's anywhere near the 99th centile. Can't believe I didn't feed him sufficiently.....he cost more than the mortgage!

@AmyW9 I will be getting my nhs ones too it's just nice to see baby a little more often and the reassurance is nice with having so much anxiety as it is but yes hopefully his organs are all looking good at the 20 week nhs one too as I'm absolutely petrified for it!

Unfortunately at wttw we were told I'd miscarry and to go home and let nature take its course but we're still here and pregnant thank god!

@Ellsx6 glad it helped a little! Not hypersensitive at all, I felt the exact same on my second. Anything "out of the norm" naturally makes you worry when you care so much about someone.

If the measurements are different on your NHS scan don't be afraid to ask them to recheck either. I asked my sonographer to verify some measurements when they had a different trajectory than precious scans, and they changed on the second check a few times. They never minded in my experience.

You'll have to update us in a few months how big baby actually ends up being at birth!