ALREADY SUGGESTING GROWTH SCANS!
When at your booking in appointment your midwife will take details of any previous pregnancies you have had including, terminations and miscarriages. They like to have a record of your medical history and all pregnancy history that could adjust the care you receive throughout this pregnancy and the birth of your baby.
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When taking details about when my first baby was born one of the questions was “What weight was she when she was born?”
It’s so amazing how you remember every little detail from their gestation at birth, time of birth, weight at birth etc. All these numbers just stick in your head!
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Anyway, I said “2.45KG.”
The midwife replied with “Wow, she was tiny! If your baby measures small during this pregnancy as well it will be best to monitor you and offer you growth scans on a weekly basis during late pregnancy.”
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Hang on a minute. I am at my booking in appointment. I haven’t even seen a heartbeat at a dating scan yet, why are you talking to me about 6 months down the line?
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Also, yes, my daughter weighed 2.45KG (5lb 4oz) but she was also born at 37+4 and I am only a size 6! Surely a baby is only going to grow to a size that I can comfortably carry and birth successfully.
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More to the point, I didn’t have growth scans when I was pregnant with her, as there were no concerns. Even after she was born not one midwife even mentioned that was small. If she was born around EDD (40wks) she would’ve been just under 7lbs probably, so her size for her gestation was totally normal and healthy.
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Once again, I am talking about the language that is being used here and the scaremongering that goes on. There was absolutely no need to inject the panic of ‘if this baby is also small than that’s a bad thing’ into my mind at such an early stage in my pregnancy.
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Yes, she was born on the 2nd Centile, but she loved her milk and ballooned up to the 92nd Centile within 6 weeks and has remained there ever since. She is a perfect, chubby toddler but when in the womb she grew to 5lb 4oz and was born 2 and a half weeks early. It was right for her and right for me and she was a wonderful baby.
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Also, this is a totally different pregnancy, it will be a totally different birth, born at a different gestation and at a different weight. Here’s to the possibility of having another small baby and allowing them to be ‘monitor free’ and be born naturally just as nature intended.
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