Ok so yesterday at my 38 week appointment the doc said that I'm 2 cm dilated but the baby is still at -2 station, so pretty much doesn't want to come out yet, but she was a little concerned about his size because when she palpates my abdomen she says he feels quite large. So she said she wants me in for an ultrasound to check on his size. But I have heard from a lot of my friends who have had babies that this is really inaccurate like can be off by one or two pounds either way, so if its so inaccurate why would be the reason for them doing it? Is this done a lot around 39 weeks?

It's dome to measure the size of certain bones (one being the femur) to see how far along you actually are gestationally. Remember, that this is just a measurement tool and is not 100% accurate. My son was to weigh over 8 pounds by the ultrasound and when he came out he was only 5 pounds 11 ounces.

The only way to know beyond the shadow of a doubt is delivery.

I agree with J9. I had an ultrasound at 39 weeks with my son, they were concerned that I was low on amniotic fluid, at that time they said that my son was almost 10 pounds, he was 8lbs 2 1/2 ounces at birth, almost two weeks later. It's just an estimate.

Seems silly do even predict the weight since they are usually wrong lol

Hi! I am a registered ultrasonographer. The earlier the pregnancy, the more accurate an ultrasound is for weight & date estimation. Most screening ultrasound calculation packages are set to be based off 20 weeks gestational age... That is about when most fetal screenings are done. So, the further past you are from twenty weeks, the less accurate these measurements may be. Most of the reason is because the baby's "parts" are now way bigger than our ultrasound transducers and are difficult to get in the screen. So we have to do some fancy guessing. ANOTHER reason is, especially at 30+ weeks, the baby's head can be pretty far down in mom's pelvis, making it very difficult to obtain the necessary head measurements. So a lot also depends on the baby's position, and the skill of the technologist.

Actually, I just re-checked the date of your post... You probably have the baby by now. So, did you have that ultrasound? And how close was it to the real thing?

I had one done a week and a half before I had my daughter it said almost 9 lbs and I was terrifed to have a baby that big. Well she poped out a 6 lb 3 oz tiny little girl. So it def. is just a guess or estimate . I don't know why they do them.

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Originally Posted by jessy0428

i had one done a week and a half before I had my daughter it said almost 9 lbs and I was terrifed to have a baby that big. well she poped out a 6 lb 3 oz tiny little girl. So it def. is just a guess or estimate . I dont know why they do them.

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This is why I wish they wouldn't share the suspected weight unless there was a true concern. Too many mothers are made to worry unnecessarily and often the seed of doubt about their ability to give birth is planted. Big baby syndrome is one of the more common reasons for the increased used of inductions.

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Originally Posted by alansteve

Your health care provider will monitor the baby's heart rate throughout your labor using external or internal fetal monitoring systems. If in case your doctor selects the internal monitoring system then that means the doctor is looking for a more accurate reading.

In case the doctor is using the external fetal monitoring system then it is nothing but a belt which is strapped to your abdomen with a receiver attached, which detects your baby's heart rate much similar to a Doppler ultrasound.

The ultrasound system is 100% accurate, no doubt on that system. you would be get accurate information about the baby size when you have 39 weeks pregnant.

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The baby in this thread is approximately 2 years old now. Please check your dates prior to responding to threads.

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