Drop in percentile / suggested induction

I had my 36 week growth scan yesterday and baby boy has dropped quite a bit in percentile over the last 8 weeks.

For context, I get a few more scans because I’m coeliac but since it’s diagnosed and I know how to manage my diet, it should not affect baby at all.

At 28 weeks he was 89th percentile,
then 41th percentile at 34 weeks and now at 36 weeks he’s 21th percentile.

The sonographer said he’s healthy, has excellent blood flow, is in the right position and everything looks great. She says looking at the scan in isolation there’s no reason to worry because 21th percentile is still perfectly within range.

The wild thing is, no one even noticed this drop. I noticed at 34 weeks and asked my midwife and then had a review of the scan with an OB, who also nearly missed it again until I asked about it.

The OB said if my 36 week scan came back lower again, they would want to discusss induction with me next week at 37 weeks because it *could* be a sign that my placenta is not working efficiently enough anymore.

So - in isolation all scans looks great and baby boy is healthy, but the trend shows a slowed down growth.

I’m terrified of an induction because I heard so many horror stories and intuitively, it just feels off. It doesn’t feel like baby is ready and it doesn’t feel like I’m ready.
Does anyone have experience with a drop in percentile and suggested induction? It’s hard to tell where the OB is just following protocol and where this actually makes medically sense. It’s clearly not an emergency, otherwise they wouldn’t wait until next week to even review…

It just makes me mad because if I hadn’t pointed it out, nobody had even questioned it. On top of that they scribbled the wrong blood group for me in the report in my blue book
last week which makes me even more distrustful to Homerton Hospital 😳

Plus I’ve been in twice with reduced fetal movements and feel like I’m now on their radar. My midwife keeps telling me to always go in if anything feels off and a couple times in the heatwave it felt just a little different, but everything ended up being totally fine.
She made it sounds like it’s good to just get it checked but didn’t warn me that they’d now keep asking about it and take that into consideration when discussing an induction.

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My little boys currently napping in my arms whilst I type this :) just here to say we went from 80th centile on the GROW chart at 32 weeks down to 30th centile at 36 weeks, I had low pappa in this pregnancy, and alot of signs of preclampsia which was diagnosed at 36+3 so they induced me at 37 weeks. This is my second baby and my second induction. The first induction process was not great for me due to hyperstimulation and not really knowing that level of pain wasnt 'normal' (not getting breaks from contractions that are really intense for small/no dilation). This time around if you told me I could redo my entire labour again start to finish id say absolutely! I had the most rewarding beautiful birth i didnt think was even possible. I was admitted for induction at 37 weeks exactly, I had him at 37+3 after going through the rods (got me to 1cm) then the pessary (hyperstimulated me again which was expected but it got me to 2cm) then the oxytocin drip started Saturday 9am he was born Saturday 12.21 :) x

Hey lovely . Literally in the exact same boat right now . I’m 37+1 , i came in for rfm on Sunday night , not been allowed to leave . when they scanned me they saw he dropped from 67th percentile to the 16th . They said that hes not considered ‘too small’ but the drop in percentile and his movement being less active indicates my placenta isn’t giving him what he needs .

Now i know this isn’t always accurate, and i never wanted an induction but i have decided that it is for the best that they do induce me . If my placenta isn’t giving him what he needs I just imagine him struggling.

At the same time you know what’s right for you 🩵 just stay positive and open minded x

All that to.say ^^^ not all inductions are crap although I know theres ALOT more negative stories out there about it. Having experienced both sides of it myself even my 'worse' induction story wasnt absolutely dreadful and ended up with two healthy baby boys 💙
Couldn't comment on everything going on with you, but just wanted to let you know on the early induction front ❤️

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