small head measurements on 20 scan

[reban]

I have just had my 20 week scan and the sonographer has said that she is a little concerned that the head measurements are a little small. I think from what i was reading on the screen they are about 2 weeks behind. I have been booked in for a scan at 24 weeks as she said sometimes the measurements just "catch up" but i am going slightly insane. This is my fourth child and i have had more problems with this pregnancy then the rest put together. I am seriously tempted to start googling and doing research into what these small head measurements could mean but i dont want to spend the next four weeks self diagnosing. Has anyone eolse had experience, good or bad, or this?

Im not sure i explained this very well but its only the head measurements that are small not the other measurements they do, like the femur length etc

HI Reban. I had this with DD2 but she turned out fine. Still small head - between the 2nd and 9th centile, but developing absolutely fine (10 months old now). The 20 week scan - they'll have looked at the brain structure too, not just the size, so if all's well inside, that's the main thing. I googled and read and scared myself and it spoiled somewhat the remainder of my pregnancy. Good luck.

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sorry thanks for your reply cthea its just the unknown that is killing me know. This has been a very difficult pregnancy and im really scared that after months of worry over several different things now something really bad is going to happen. I dreamt last night that my baby turned out to be a mutant, like in x-men. Things is, if baby has a condition we can adapt to that, i just dont know what those conditions could possibly be as nothing was explained to me.

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Reban - so sorry to hear you're worried about this. I was too at the time, really worried. I googled, I searched on here (typed "microcephaly" and got some wonderfully reassuring messages - posted previously for other people), searched on PubMed etc etc. I had gestational diabetes and read up on the association between GD and microcephaly. All is well now. DD2 still has a small-ish head but nothing wrong with her. She's sweet, smiley, lovely, close to standing and developing well.

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My ds has a really small head (not on any centile) due to brain damage incurred just before labour/birth. He is still developing well and his possible/mild cerebral palsy is likely to be caused by the brain damage rather than the head size IYSWIM.

His consultant says it all depends on how he does, not just the size.

Morale of this story - even if the head is very small it still does not mean serious problems.

At my 20wk scan I was told that my baby's stomach measurement was low so I had a scan at 24wk and I was then told that it was really big, so these things do catch up, and the scans aren't an exact science. It's best not to Google, or at least wait until your 24wk scan as you're more than likely to frighten yourself into an early grave for no reason what so ever.

US measurements arent's v accurate but shouldn't be dismissed altogether. A head measuring small is probably on the small side but the measurement error may put it at 1% rather than 9%, let's say, and you'd feel reassured if it was the latter. In the end, whatever the exact centile, if it's within the "normal" range then it's there because it's "normal" size.

thanks for your replies im trying to stay calm xx

Good luck. I hope all goes well.