Baby is 12 centile in 20weeks scan

Scans can be very inaccurate, take it lightly

There’s a few things to consider. First is genetics - are you and your family generally short or tall? What about your partner’s family? You can work out your own percentile for height. If you and your partner are on the shorter side then there’s a good likelihood that your baby is just going to a be short person and there’s nothing wrong with that.

If you are tall and your partner is tall and your families are tall there’s perhaps room for some concern. However sizing scans are not always accurate. Firstly, you can think of sizing scans as a snap shot - for example your baby might be just about to have a growth spurt and catch up. Secondly, the person doing the scan may not be so great at taking the measurements, so there can be like a 20% variation. However scans are much more accurate than bump measurements.

Hospital generally worry about the bottom 10% and top 10% growth wise, so unless your baby starts slipping percentile or your expecting tall genes don’t be too worried. 💗

Thank you! I am under 5 feet tall so makes sense. Also my 9 week scan gave a due date of 02nd Oct and my nhs scan at 13.4 weeks gave a due date of 27th sept so I’m guessing the due date also has a part to play maybe?

Mine went from 11th percentile to 50th in utero. Was born around the 60th and is now trending at the 25th since 1 1/2 weeks. These scans aren’t always accurate so don’t worry.

Something similar happened to me - baby was measured as being on the 2nd centile at 20 weeks. I’ve had scans at 22, 24 & 28 weeks and have another 2 at 32 & 36 weeks. He’s since measured anywhere from 15-36th centiles, so still small but not as small as they initially measured. All other measurements (abdomen, head, femur) were normal.

I was a small baby when I was born and neither myself or my hubby are tall so I guess it’s genetics!

Scans really not accurate. Also, twelfth is fine. Someone’s got to be towards the bottom, can’t all be 50+