please help

[BarbraS]

really scared 1st time pregnancy 20wk scan saying baby has short femur about 1 week behind where it should be I’m so frightened has anyone else had this

[Seb9]

Had your sonographer made any recommendations or referrals? If they haven't it could be that they're just on the short side of normal. My children all were very low percentiles in head size, but still within the range of normal.

[BarbraS in reply to Seb9]

He said it was just below so refers me and I have an appt on 23rd I’m really scared as all Google info has nothing positive

[Seb9 in reply to BarbraS]

They do always err on the side of caution and babies change from one scan to the next, most of the time it's fine so try not to worry and stay away from Google, good luck xx

[Ranchu90]

They scared me also on one of my twins. My little boy looks normal and he is a happy 9 months old baby. I googled also and was scared to death, leave Google away ...and try to not think about anything bad. Everything changes every week ...I had scans every 2 weeks. Some weeks looked that he recovered others not really...in the end was everything fine. When they were born we had the hip scan also. Take care and stay positive 🥰🌈

[Flora631]

Hello! We had a short femur length all the way through, we were under 5th percentile the whole time. I kept pressing midwife’s about it and they were saying to me you’re short so likely your baby will be. And I was thinking I’m not shortest 5% in the country little …… 20 months on my little girl is absolutely fine! The midwives were correct - if the weight is on the right track you very likely don’t need to worry. I know that’s hard but they do know what they’re doing ❤️ I had loads of scans towards the end as various measurements were out of tolerance, but meant I got to see her loads on the screen, which was lovely ☺️

[BarbraS in reply to Flora631]

Thank you for your reply it is very kind of you fingers crossed for the next scan xxx

[Purplenaija]

I also had this (told femur below 5th percentile) and my baby girl is now 9 months old, doing great and her legs look long for her size (although she’s 25th percentile)! We were referred to a specialist during pregnancy and she said the measurements are inherently inaccurate and it’s more about making sure they’re growing progressively from scan to scan. I agree with the others - try not to worry or look on Google (I was petrified too until I decided to keep the faith and take solace in the fact that she was moving and kicking so thought there couldn’t be too much wrong!) x

[Eternalwarrior]

We also had a short femur length all the way through, sometimes even under 5th percentile and baby was measuring small for his gestational age all way through the pregnancy. Me and my husband are both really tall, which was a concern...I had to have lots of growth scans every couple of weeks but on a few occasions even weekly. He was a very small baby when he was born but he's catching up now. I understand how you are feeling. It was very stressful for us but we have now got a very happy and healthy 4 month old baby! Try not to google. The good thing is that you will be monitor regularly and will get to see your little one more often. Wishing you all the best xx

[Trinity613]

Hi, I had a similar experience about 4 weeks ago at my 20 weeks scan. They told me the head was on the 5th percentile and any measurement that is under 10th percentile needs to be monitored. I was in tears and all over the place, this is my 4th pregnancy and I always had big babies. The week after I was seen in a more specialised hospital and they toldme that although the head was actually not on the 5th percentile (it was around the 10th) now the femur was below the 5th percentile! I was even more confused and panicked. I rushed to do a TORCH test to rule out any infection and an NIPT test to rule out trisomy. The week before by results came was horrendous to say the least. Thank Gd everything came back negative. The week after I had my follow up scan which showed the baby had jumped to the 30th percentile !!! I was extatic!! All this to tell you that ultrasounds are not precise and babies have growth spurt. Iwish they had told me this, it would have saved me a lot of worry, sleepless nights and tears. I hope it all goes well for you. If all the other measurements were in the normal range, I wouldn’t worry, a few millimetres off changes everything and there or more or less skilled sonographers…

[HollyT7]

your babe will probably just be shorter, are you tall? ours measures 3 weeks in front so far and has a femur of 6cm, I'm tall so he just takes after me, our youngest did too xx

[Sevy571]

Yes we had this, I can't remember well now but they had said basically that the femur measurement was a few weeks behind whatever other measurement they had made and vs the age of the baby. Baby was born and is growing totally normal and healthy, don't worry at all I'm sure it's just medical terms to notice individual variations.