Urgent scan

Yes I had this recently… bump measurement was below 1st centile. They have to refer usually within 24 hours as usual protocol. Though I must stress fundal height measurements are typically inaccurate and just an indicator/measure to refer for a scan. Went for the scan the next morning and while baby is measuring lower, they were happy & healthy. They will check blood flow from placenta to baby etc. Some babies are just smaller. They do need to check though because it could be a sign that the placenta isn’t performing as well and so baby growth has dropped but this is quite rare and hard to 100% determine on a scan. So for me bump was below 1st centile and baby on the scan was below 10th centile in particular the tummy which is the main part of concern as where the umbilical cord connects but blood flow all fine. My last scan was 20 weeks and they were 63rd centile so there was a concern about the drop and talk of early delivery but only if things continued to drop and I’d be monitored

Had a scan the following week and baby is still looking small but not dropped any further and as these scans are closer together it’s easier for them to chart. Had a midwife appt. this week and my bump is still 4 weeks behind so plotting lower but this is pretty much irrelevant now because having scans/being monitored. Have my next scan on Tuesday to see how baby is doing and then will have another one either 1/2weeks after depending on how close they want to monitor. Aim is to always keep baby in for as long as possible unless there is a medical concern. A small baby is ok. Remember even 5th centile is still normal but it just means at the same gestation 95% of babies are bigger than yours but we are all different sizes so that’s ok. It’s really about making sure there is no compromising factors to baby - growth restriction/placenta etc. I had this a bit with my last pregnancy but focused around small head and she was born healthy & fine at 42+1, just a bit smaller.

So most likely your scan will show a higher percentile than bump as bump measurements are so wrong and the important thing is they will monitor/assess as needed depending on what they see. Even scans have a 20% margin of error too so keep that in mind. And it is really hard especially at later gestations for them to accurately measure baby but they will get a good read of things and advise from there. In most cases even if on the lower side it’ll just be monitoring but no need for any major panic (of course totally understand to feel anxious). Hope that helps and hope the scan goes ok!

We’ve had this, we were sent straight round to the hospital which terrified me but it was all down to the fact I’ve seen different midwives at appointments and they’ve measured with the tape measure slightly differently. Means my graph thingy is all over the place!

Thanks Ladies, Baby is doing good, still 72nd percentile.