Short long bones

Hi everyone, I’m just posting this hoping to find out if anyone has experienced anything similar & what the outcome was as I’m totally overwhelmed with worry. I can’t seem to find much online about others going through this. I’ve been midwife-led my whole pregnancy (low risk) with no concerns up until 31 weeks when they said my bump was measuring big. They referred me for a growth scan which concluded baby was within normal range. I then had a repeat growth scan at 33 weeks which also found baby to be normal size. I had a consultant scan at 34 weeks to review my placenta position as it was flagged as low-lying at my 20 week scan. It was at this scan, the consultant told us that the baby’s femur was measuring small and referred us on to MFM for a 2nd opinion, but told us he “wouldn’t be too concerned about it”. Forward on to last week when I had my appointment with MFM at 36+5. The consultant spent about an hour scanning me very in-depth. At the end, she told us that all baby’s long-bones were measuring short (<5% centile) and there could be numerous causes for it. She basically said the suspected diagnosis is skeletal dysplasia (non-lethal form). She also told us it could be a genetic or chromosomal condition, placental insufficiency or just constitutional - and that the baby is just small. We won’t know until baby is here and genetic testing etc is completed. We have been referred on to Neonatology to discuss management after birth and also have another scan with MFM this week. Obviously at this stage in pregnancy, we are in complete shock and worried sick about what the future now holds for us. Has anyone been through this or anything similar? Really struggling to wrap my head around it all.

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I’m currently going through this now at 24 weeks. My 20 week scan shown the long bones being <5% centile. This is arms and legs. We are having extra scans to make sure they are all growing in proportion which so far they are. We are both small. 5ft2 to be exact (including dad) so I’m trying not to worry as I think genetics are just following on. No one in our families are over 5ft 6 really. Are you short?

It’s only baby’s arms & legs for us too, all other measurements seem to be normal. Neither of us are tall, I’m around 5ft5 and baby’s daddy is around 5ft6. We don’t have anyone that’s particularly tall on either side of the family either so I’m really hoping it’s just a smaller baby. Just so worrying at this stage to be picked up and you can’t do anything but wait it out. I’m being induced tomorrow at 37+3, so will find out very soon. So ready to have him here! Hope all goes well with the rest of your pregnancy xx

Yep everything else is measuring fine so I’m trying not to worry - we were never going to have a baby with long legs realistically!! Out of curiosity, what did they put the long bones down as from your 20 week scan? Seems odd it wasn’t flagged then on the charts they do. Hope all goes well for you tomorrow anyway. You’ll have to post on here the outcome of baby as I’d be interested to know. I’ve got 15 weeks left of scans and worry but I’m sure it will be fine in the end.

I don’t have access to my notes from the 20 week scan but they had both arms and legs down as normal range and unremarkable! That’s why it’s been such a shock for it to be flagged up at this stage. Thank you! Yes I’ll definitely come back and update you, as I know what it’s like not being able to find much online about similar experiences x

Hey, how did you get on with your birth etc?

Hey! So the induction failed in the end as it was taking too long to make progress. They broke my waters and started me on the drip but it kept making me & baby’s blood pressure drop so it was a lot of stopping and starting, but in the end it was an emergency c-section. Baby was delivered and the neonatal team seen him straight away in theatre. He’s measuring normal length and appears to be proportionate. He presents as healthy thank goodness. They took bloods to send away for genetic testing and he had a skeletal screening x-ray done too. The neonatal consultants couldn’t see anything obviously wrong with him so fingers crossed he’s all okay. We don’t find out any of the results until next month unfortunately. But I will come back & let you know the results when we do get them. They’ve basically told us that it’s just a case of ruling things out at this point as they can’t see anything wrong in any of their assessments🙏🏼

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