You mentioned that you’re 38 weeks along and the doctor is concerned about the size of your baby. Your belly must be measuring big. That’s usually the first thing to clue a doctor off to the fact that the baby’s growth is either abnormally small or large for your gestational age. You probably notice that, at each prenatal appointment, the doctor measures the size of your baby from your pubic bone to the top of your uterus, and this should match your gestational age in centimeters. So if it’s abnormally small or large, then the woman should be sent for an ultrasound so that the actual size of the baby can be measured. Sometimes there’s a discrepancy because of how the woman is carrying the baby, sometimes it’s the amount of fluid surrounding the baby that’s making her abnormally large, and then sometimes it actually is the size of the baby.
When you go for the ultrasound, the technician or the doctor who performs it will get an estimated fetal weight. Let’s say, for you, your baby is measuring about 8 pounds. You are right in saying that ultrasounds in the 3rd trimester are not very accurate in the sense that they can’t date the pregnancy. It won’t change the due date for you, because any growth discrepancies that happen in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters have to be due to a pathological cause, and they need to look into that. For example, abnormally large babies can be grown by mothers who have uncontrolled diabetes. And so that’s something that we always think about. And then if a baby is abnormally large, it has implications after delivery. Sometimes extra small or extra large babies struggle with blood sugar control. So it’s nice to know this ahead of time so that we can be on alert and be monitoring the baby for issues.
So let’s just say that the estimated fetal weight for your baby is 8 pounds. Your baby could actually be 7 pounds or 9 pounds. It can be plus or minus a pound in either direction, but it’s usually pretty accurate, and it sounds like your doctor is recommending a C-section based on what they’ve seen so far, because they’re worried about the baby fitting. I do recommend talking with your doctor and sharing your concerns with them, and based on your ultrasound results and the knowledge of your history, they’ll be able to give you the best advice and explain why they think that would be the best plan of care. Good luck with everything, and congratulation ahead of time on the birth of your baby! And if you have any other questions for me in the future, feel free to ask them on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/IntermountainMoms, and recommend us to your friends and family too.
https://ultrasoundclass.org/im-38-weeks-and-getting-an-ultrasound-to-see-how-big-my-baby-is-how-accurate-is-this/
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