Below 5th centile long bones / femur measured short at 33 weeks

[WeldonF]

Hello,

wondering if anyone has had similar and what their outcome was…

sent for a routine growth scan at 32 weeks as they thought bump was measuring a week ahead. At ultrasound all bar 1 of the long bones were measuring below the 5th centile. The hospital uses customised growth charts and as I’m 5ft 10 and partner is 6ft 2 we were referred to fetal health. The 20 week scan was all normal and the NT test results came back at 1/5000 chance, lowest you can get.

following fetal health app today at 33week, all bones were either better than 32 week or the same, measuring below 5th centile. Because myself and partner are tall and can’t really think who in the family is considerably short other than grandmothers (our baby is a boy) they are going to do an amnio test in a few days.

They did say if we weren’t tall they wouldn’t be concerned but because we are they recommend the amnio

wondered if anyone else had this and what their outcome was
femur length 56mm
tibia 46mm
humerus 50mm

any experiences welcome

thanks

Hi, im sorry this must be very stressful. My son's long bones were all below the 2nd centile, we had lots of growth scans and it caused huge anxiety. We are all average height. He is now 10 and absolutely perfect, he was small for his age but has caught up now.

Good luck with the amnio and he will be gorgeous x

Hello, I'm so sorry you're going through this - I had similar in my first pregnancy and I remember how stressful and upsetting it was.

Im sure the consultants will have mentioned it but short long bones can be a sign that the placenta isn't working optimally which was the case with me. My baby's femurs were under the 5th centile from 20 weeks and my husband and I are 5'7 and 6'3 so neither particularly short.

My baby was quite small at birth (5lb 14) but caught up quickly to 75th centile for length by 6 months. My consultant did explain that it's much more common for it to be caused by placental insufficiency than anything genetic especially if the short measurements only start in the third trimester.

If there's one piece of advice I can give it would be to stay away from google - I tormented myself and ruined the last half of my pregnancy when in hindsight my consultant/midwife were never that concerned. I really hope you get some reassurance soon xx

I'm in the same boat, femurs measuring small on ultrasound and they have found placental lakes which can apparently cause growth restriction. Combined screening result was low risk. Got to wait a month for the next ultrasound now to see if anything has changed. Googling this is the worst anxiety producing thing to do sometimes.

I’m in the same boat too, low risk screening test, no other markers on any scans, femur measuring short-ish at anomaly scan (around 15th percentile) but never worryingly so. AC and HC are lingering around 50th percentile but at 28/29 weeks femur has dropped to 1st percentile. Referred to fetal medicine and just waiting to hear from them. Hubby comes from an average height family but he himself is quite tall, whereas all the men in my family bar my brother who is tall and lanky are all quite short. Been making myself sick with worry :(