Meauring small for dates at 24 weeks - anyone else the same?

[hburymama]

Hello,

I'm 24 weeks (with 2nd baby) and being monitored very closely due to hpb at 12 week scan. The hospital is worried that I may develop pre-eclampsia and so I have having a scan every 2 weeks. In addition, and quite scarily, the bubby is measuring small for dates - 5th percentile and below. The bubby is growing consistently which is great news, but it's hard not to get worried when you are constantly being monitored and waiting to make sure they are still growing consistently. I have no symptoms of pre-eclampsia and have not had high blood pressure since the 12 week scan...

I do appreciate that the hospital is being thorough and taking precautionary measures, but the constant monitoring is quite alarming and stressful-my first pregnancy was very easy by comparison.

After two scans last week, I have been called back again this week to see a consultant who is going to do further tests. They also want to rule out if I may have/had an infection that could be affecting the baby's growth.

Is anyone else in the same boat? Or have you been? I'd love to hear some positive stories.
Thanks

im not in the same boat or anything, but i had preeclampsia with my first baby and was thus very heavily monitored with my second, luckily she grew well but i understand the panic and worry thats invovled in the constant worrying.

i hope the dr can help work out why the baby is small, and theres something you can do about it.

good luck, i hope theres someone who can comme in with a good story, in the mean time try not to worry, i know its damn impossible but try, get your partner to try and distract you as best as possible

are you on any medication to help the blood flow to the placenta (poor fetal growth is often a sign of the placenta not working quite as well as it should, which in turn is thought to be the cause/a cause of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia).

If you are not on Asprin or Fragmin or other drug to help placental function, maybe ask your consultant why. Maybe He/she suspects some other cause of the growth restriction (perhaps related to your medical history), or maybe he/she is not very up to date with this area of research!

Worth asking - can't do any harm.

Thank you for your comments oldmum42 and kwiltshire.

oldmum42 - the sonographers say that my placenta and the blood flow to the baby both seem normal on the scans. I will certainly be asking on Wednesday though. Thank you.

kwiltshire - Thank you for your kind words and support.

I was the same, they even sent me for a scan and it turned out baby is actually big. I just have super muscles, so do you!

It's good news that the blood flow to the placeta looks good on scan (I've read about other mums having problems with the big blood vessels into the placenta here on MN), but I THINK, not 100% sure of this, that the type of problems that they might give you asprin/fragmin for are poor flow in the tiny vessels where the babies blood exchanges gasses/food with your blood (if the blood is a bit too thick this doesn't work as well), so I'm not sure if a scan would show that problem up?

Good luck with your next scan.