Baby "Drop" and Fundal Measurements

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jessica Fox on July 19, 2010 at 8:22am

My baby seems to have been dropping in stages, the first noticeable drop my measurement remained the same, the second and after my second and bigger drop I suddenly started to measure 1 week ahead whereas I had been "right on" with my current number of weeks all pregnancy.

But each belly is different and baby's position plays a big role, for me my belly has gone from being "tall" to sticking out more.

Permalink Reply by Sara on July 19, 2010 at 9:14am

Mine dropped. By about 2 cm. Suddenly, I was no longer "right on" when it came to my measurements. The next week I was about the same, although I should have gained a cm. My Midwife assured me that this was perfectly normal and was able to gauge about how much we lost in fundal height by how low he was in my pelvis. In any case, fundal height is no longer accurate past about 36 weeks and becomes a very unreliable was to monitor fetal growth.

Permalink Reply by Kayla Dolan on July 19, 2010 at 11:10am

Yes. That does often happen. It happened for me. I went up to 43 then, about 5 days later, dropped down 39. A drop of 1 or so probably just means mismeasurement or slight change. If it changes by 3-4, you've had a sudden drop.

My midwife told me that feel is better, though. If you have a day where you just get some crampy menstrual feelings all day long, that's probably a day of significant drop. Labor, in her crew of multiparas, usually commences about 2 wks from that day. My labor started exactly 13 days after I had the day of cramping.

Permalink Reply by naomi on July 19, 2010 at 12:04pm

I don't know if that plays a role or not with my first daughter I was measuring normal the entire pregnancy up until 34 weeks when I measured bigger then normal to the point they were concerened about her wieght and had an unltrasound down she did measure big I went into labor middle of the following week and the dr didn't say anything to me when eh looked at ultrasound thinking she dropped so I'm not sure if it plays a part I guess we'll find out with this pregnancy .What does your dr or midwife say?

Permalink Reply by Marci For Birth Choice on July 20, 2010 at 6:25am

I know my midwives say the baby will eventually drop, but I haven't been back to them yet to find out what they think about the relationship between fundal measurements and the baby dropping. I just found out recently that some people think the fundal measurements change after a baby dropped, and I don't see my midwives again until July 28th, so I thought I'd ask questions about this here :).

Thanks to everyone who replied - all were really helpful to me :). My husband says my tummy looks much lower than it did so we're wondering if the baby has dropped already; I guess we'll see!!!