I get high bp when I am stressed. The Doctor said he wasn't worried but he wanted me to go for an ultrasound anyway. He wanted to see how big the baby was and measure the volume of amniotic fluid. He is making sure the high bp is not stunting the baby's growth or turning into preeclampsia. The 1st thing the ultrasound tech asked me when she looked at the baby was if I was diabetic. I told her I wasn't. When I asked her how the fluids were she said they were fine. When I looked on the screen the computer estimated that the baby weight is almost 4 lbs already and I am only 2 weeks into my 7th month. I asked her how big the baby should be by now and she said the size right now didn't really matter because it gains more weight the last few weeks. When I got home I looked in my book "What to expect when expecting" and it said by the end of the 7th month the baby should weigh 3 lbs. Would the tech. lie to me about the fluids being fine? Is the book close to being right about the size of the baby or does the size not matter right now like the tech said?
Don't worry about it yet and talk to your doctor or the doctor who reads the ultrasound. Often the ultrasound tech is not a doctor and isn't trained to read and give the final word on the reading.
What all the books say is something like this: "Not all babies grow at the same rate. Your's may be bigger or smaller than the averages we list here."
We all tend to skip over this disclaimer, since we're anxious to know how our little one is measuring up.
What matters most is what the doctor says. The techs are just going by experience from doing lots of scans, not from residency training in obstectrics! There can be a difference. Listen to the doc.
Plus, why would the tech lie?? She wouldn't put her job on the line for you, right??
The tech wouldn't lie. But, the ultrasound itself might. They are not known to be extremely accurate on size. They can predict a big baby when the baby is actually small. They can also predict a small baby when the baby is actually a bit big.
My Lamaze teacher, also a delivery room nurse for 30 years, told me (upon hearing that I was going in for a 34 week ultrasound to size the baby) that at this far along in the pregnancy, ultrasound can be as much as 20% off in either direction. They predicted that my DD was 6.5 lbs at 34 weeks and shewas 8lbs 7 oz. when shewas born...so if she gained what the average is, .5lbs per week, they were actually spot on with me.
