A growth scan during pregnancy is carried out to check the baby’s development. Often scans are a part of routine care in pregnancy and are conducted before the third trimester. Growth scans are typically performed in the final trimester for most women. Nevertheless, it may cause you to become concerned and anxious about your baby’s health. Read on to know more about growth scans and understand their significance in pregnancy.
What Is A Growth Scan During Pregnancy?
If you have a scan during your third trimester, it’s called a ‘growth scan’ or ‘wellbeing scan’ – which is done to take your baby’s measurements, and assess their health. A growth scan is an ultrasound scan that determines whether your baby’s growth is normal. Doctors typically recommend it for women during the third trimester of pregnancy; one of the main reasons is to know about fetal growth (1).
What Is The Purpose Of A Growth Scan?
A growth scan in pregnancy is performed to provide your doctor with useful information about your pregnancy and fetal growth. It helps the doctor (2):
Check your baby’s overall growth.
Check the volume of your amniotic fluid.
Determine the final position and maturity of the placenta.
Determine the fetal position. Check the baby’s estimated weight close to your delivery date [3].
Who Needs A Growth Scan?
You may need a growth scan for various reasons. Some of these reasons include (3):
If you have had complications in your previous pregnancies, your doctor may perform additional scans to monitor the fetal health. Pregnancy complications can mean health risks for you and the fetus. If you had a medical problem like thyroid disease, seizures, asthma, heart disease, or anaemia before or during pregnancy, it can lead to pregnancy complications. Similarly, accidents or injuries while pregnant can also lead to pregnancy complications. In such cases, doctors may opt for a late pregnancy growth scan to keep a tab on the pregnancy complications that can arise due to health problems (4).
Pregnancy complications can also arise due to the placental position and placental breaks. In the following two conditions (5):
Placenta praevia means the placenta is laying low in the womb. It can block the cervix and make vaginal delivery difficult or impossible and can lead to severe bleeding. Image: Shutterstock
Placental abruption is when the placenta breaks away from the uterine wall due to some health complications and bleeding through vagina is observed.
Your doctor will monitor your pregnancy and fetal health frequently for the rest of your term. A growth scan in the last few weeks of your pregnancy may be essential to determine the placental position and so to decide the time and method of delivering your baby [6].
Many a time women develop diabetes during pregnancy (gestational diabetes).It is a serious condition, and if you don’t manage it well, it can cause pregnancy complications. A growth scan helps your doctor determine if there is a problem with your pregnancy due to gestational diabetes. Your baby can suffer from excess birth weight, which may mean a C-section delivery for you. Your child can have respiratory problems, a preterm birth, and low sugar at birth. These are just some of the risks to your baby due to gestational diabetes . With the help of a growth scan, your doctor can determine if your pregnancy or baby has any problems due to your gestational diabetes (6).
Women may develop high blood pressure during pregnancy (gestational hypertension). Whether you suffer from high blood pressure before your pregnancy or gestational hypertension, both conditions can cause pregnancy complications. In case you have high blood pressure during pregnancy, your doctor will like to monitor your baby’s growth regularly. And, a growth scan can help your doctor check for fetal growth abnormalities and complications (7).
The doctor usually measures the fundal height. Fundal height is the distance from the top of your uterus to your pubic bone. It should correspond with your pregnancy in weeks. For instance, if you are 22 weeks pregnant then your ideal fundal measurement is 22 cm.
If there is a discrepancy in this measurement, it can indicate
slow or rapid fetal growth. too little or excess amniotic fluid, Change in fetal positions other than normal or uterine fibroids.
So a growth scan may then be necessary to find out the problems with fetal health (8).
Your fundal height can also indicate fetal growth restriction or intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR); both indicate low fetal weight or abnormal fetal growth rate. Your doctor may then confirm it through an ultrasound. If the ultrasound results indicate that the fetal growth is not optimum, your doctor is likely to perform a growth scan (or more than one) as your pregnancy progresses towards the end of your term (8). Multiple pregnancies can lead to more risks or complications. A growth scan in the third trimester of your pregnancy can help the doctor ascertain if there is any cause for concern (9). Image: Shutterstock
You begin to experience less fetal movements during your third trimester. But If it persists, your doctor may perform a growth scan to check if everything is alright with your baby (10). If you have a fetal breech position. Breech means fetal bottom-down position. It is not an ideal birth position, and you may need to undergo a C-section. If an earlier ultrasound scan revealed the breech position, your doctor might recommend another growth scan towards the end of your pregnancy to check the position of the fetus and the placenta (11).
