20 week scan 23rd percentile just need perspective ❤️

[Olivercats]

Hi everyone,

I’ll preface this by saying I’m high risk and had a couple of early miscarriages. Potential for FGR
This is my first baby to be ok 💓 but I do have anxiety around my baby.

we had a wonderful 20 week scan and everything was checked and of no concern.

Our baby girl is measuring 23rd percentile so a little smaller. Midwife sonographer wasn’t concerned but I just want to get some opinions.

For her head and abdominal circumference this normal range and for her femur it is also within normal range but lower than both the head and tummy measurements.

i am looking for a little reassurance. I know the midwife had no issue but i was left feeling anxious and worried that her femur bone isn’t growing.

Im petite and so is my mum and dads side plus my mum in law is short too. My husband is 5’11

any insight would be wonderful
thank you x

You are petite. You are less likely to have a long legged baby if you yourself are short. 23 is not a worrying centile by any means.

23rd centile is very much normal. You don't need to worry.

Agree with PP that 23rd percentile sounds like a perfectly healthy and normal baby..plus scans can be terribly inaccurate at calculating weight.

I had IUGR with my first and he was born on the 0.2nd percentile. He was tiny

My SIL was told the same. She is 5’10 so was more worried. Baby and now teen completely normal.

Northing at all to worry about. She may not be a super model in terms height but she may be 5’3 for example.

It’s just a number and the midwife isn’t worried so please don’t give yourself something to worry about.

Both my babies were 91st + centiles in head and tummy, and on the lower side for femurs on their scans. Their femurs weren't actually as short as measured, even though all scans showed this. Babies are wiggly little things in the womb! It looks like both of them will be average to tall in height, though they have long torsos adding to their length.

Definitely not abnormal to have one measurement be on a lower centile than others. If you're worried, you can always ask for a repeat measurement check.

Thank you everyone for your kind and reassuring comments 💓 that has helped more than you could know.
yes the sonographer midwife really wasn’t worried which I have to remember.
Honestly I could look for anything to get anxious about. No one warns you how stressful having a baby is x

Remember that one or two millimeters difference is all it takes to completely change percentiles. So it's really easy to have something look slightly out of proportion when it isn't

My first baby was measuring below average and was born full term at 7lb 2oz. He was always below 10 on the centiles and even now at age 18 he is only 5ft 7in. I am petite, my dh is 5ft 10. When I was pregnant with my second, they said she was measuring small but they had a graph with my son’s measurements on and they said they weren’t concerned as she was following the same growth as my first. But, due to GD, she slowed down on growth and I ended up being induced at 38weeks. She was 5lb 6oz but was up to 50th centile within months and is now as tall as me at age 11. So, from my perspective, it’s nothing to worry about as once they are born their growth changes anyway.

This is such a relief thank you for sharing these stories

My baby is measuring small! 20th percentile. Small everything except tummy! 😃 I’m only 5”0 and my partner is 5”10 so it’s normal

I worried about a similar thing. My 10mo DD had a stomach in the 95th centile (gestational diabetes!) and a femur in the 7th. Nothing wrong with her, she's just tiny like me and my side of the family! She's still only 9th centile for height, but is between 75th and 91st for weight!!

The main thing is that baby is growing. Some babies have to be low centiles, or the curve wouldn't exist!

My DD had measurements very similar to this when expecting my DGD - who is now 2. They are both petite (DD 2nd percentile, DGD 20th percentile). There were no issues at all in the end, but it was a bit unsettling to hear at the time. Hope this gives you some reassurance.

Currently pregnant with number 2 who tracked perfectly at 50th centile up until 37 weeks…when they have jumped up to 80th. The numbers are so tiny a small change can make a big difference. DD1 was 50th centile for most things except tummy circumference and was born perfectly proportioned with massive cheeks.

Having said all that, it sounds like you’re probably under a lot of pressure (from yourself) with this pregnancy, due to your history, so my best advice would be to chat to your midwife about it. You can also self refer to your local talking therapies team (google your area + IAPTS) which might be worth doing. I found them really helpful.

Had many many miscarriages before having DD 9 months ago. She measured in the 5th percentile most of her scans! And she’s delightfully perfect, no complications, and now between 40 and 50th percentile. She eats everything not nailed down. 23rd percentile wouldn’t stress me, it’s a huge range and some babies are just smaller.

Thank you this is really reassuring

Thank you. It has been an anxious time. We have a consultant appt this week which will help but my husband has suggested I talk to my midwife.
i am also under the care of the mental health team due to my mental health history and have an appointment with them this week which is good timing.

All these reassuring comments have been so lovely to hear

My daughter is a similar shape, I don't see it very often. She is 1st-2nd percentile for height and 25-50th for weight!

@Olivercats 23rd is a good percentile. If you lined up 100 babies with mums of your size from smallest to largest they will be 23/100 so bigger than about a quarter of them! There are significant error in the measurements too. They are there to have a rough flag for those that are particularly small or big and it's usually the change that matters. Say they do growth scans later in pregnancy 23rd percentile is more concerning for a baby that the scan before was 90th percentile than the baby that has always been 23rd percentile.

A good way of picturing centiles is imagining a line of 100 children of the same age.

Line them up in size order of whatever is being measured.

The 50th centile is the child in the middle. The 25th centile is the one in place 25 etc.

@Olivercats I found the book “Pregnancy Brain” by Parijat Deshpande really useful when coping with anxiety in my first pregnancy. It’s American, so not entirely relevant, but helped me a lot.

Please do try not to worry! For my daughter they measured her legs on the 4th centile and abdomen on the 96th. I worried the rest of the pregnancy that she would look all out of proportion, but she looks perfectly proportioned and I wish I hadn’t wasted any time thinking about it! I think sometimes they tell us too much x

There’s a 15% error margin according to our NCT practitioner, so it could well be out!

My baby was around the 30th percentile so not much higher. A lot of his measurements were around the 50-70% mark, but then his legs were down in the 20s. My partner and I aren’t exactly tall so it’s to be expected and the sonographer wasn’t worried at all.