An important midwifery assessment throughout your pregnancy is the growth of your baby. The Perinatal Institute in the UK has pioneered the Growth Assessment Protocol (GAP), which has been rolled out across Aotearoa. This is a set of evidence based guidelines which support midwives to assess whether your baby is growing well.
As part of the GAP, your midwife may do an initial assessment of your risk factors for foetal growth restriction (FGR) at booking. If you are at higher risk for FGR, you will be offered routine growth scans. This link has more information about FGR risk factors and the timing of growth scans.
If you are at low risk of FGR, your midwife will offer you routine measurements of your fundal height (the distance from the top of your uterus to your pubic bone) and plot these on a customised growth chart (adjusted for your weight, height, and ethnicity) called a GROW chart.
If these measurements are very low or drop between your appointments, you will be offered growth scans to check your baby’s measurements on ultrasound.
If these measurements are very high or rise sharply, you may be offered growth scans to check your baby’s measurements on ultrasound.