Question about low fluid
emw8910
member
Hello everyone! I have a question about low fluid, just wanted to see if anyone has any experience with this. With my first pregnancy I found out at 36 weeks that my fluid was pretty low. Dr put me on bed rest for 3 days and it went up a tiny bit, another 4 days and it had gone down, below 5, so they went ahead with a csection because she was breech.
This time, my dr wanted to check my fluid early just to stay on top of it and sure enough, at 29 weeks it was at an 8. He said it was not alarming but a little on the low side so he wanted to keep an eye on it and had me come in for weekly visits to check it. After 3 weeks and my fluid going down a tiny bit each week he wanted me to see a HR dr to see if there was an underlying problem.
I had my appointment with HR dr today and my fluid was down to a 6. She said that she is concerned with it and now wants me coming in for weekly visits with her and my regular OB. (which I think is a little extreme but as long as LO is ok then I'll go with it. Seems like HR dr could check my fluid weekly and I could go to OB for normal visits every couple weeks)
My questions are, if someone has dealt with fluid being low this early, what did they do for it? She said if it goes below 5 they will put me in the hospital, does anyone know what I will have to do in the hospital if that happens? If it doesn't get any better could they take her early? Would anything with low fluid cause me to have to have a CS? I can ask most of these questions when I go back next week, I just didn't think about most of it until after I left the office today.
If anyone has any experience, insight or anything else I would appreciate it! Thanks ladies!
Re: Question about low fluid
This seems really dumb, but one of the suggestions I got was to drink water like it was my job. I got a liter bottle and drank, drank, drank. My doctor also asked me to take it easy.
How are they measuring your fluid? The 4 quadrant method or just by the deepest pocket being over 2cm? My doctor said with the quadrant method, the reading isn't very accurate. There are a lot of places for fluid to hide, so I hope there's still plenty left and you can get the number to grow.
It's a girl!
When I was pregnant with DD#1, they detected that I had low fluid around 33 weeks. I think at that time it was around 8, not scary low but lower than they would have liked. I ended up having NST's 2x/week at the hospital and weekly ultrasounds until I delivered a perfectly healthy 9 lb. 2 oz baby at 41 weeks.
Week to week it fluctuated, but never went below 5 so I did not have to deal with hospitalization or induction, but that was discussed when it got close to the lower limit.
On a side note, I go to a large practice and ended up seeing a lot of different doctors in all of my visits to check my fluid and one of the most senior doctors there told me that there is actually no proof that increasing your fluid intake will raise your amniotic fluid levels. (Of course, I drank a gallon a day just to be on the safe side, but I thought it was interesting:)
You know, besides the time spent out of the bathroom.
It's a girl!
Exactly. Can't hurt, right??
This particular doctor said that most doctors recommend it because it seems pretty "common sense" and of course is a healthy habit to maintain when pregnant but that in most cases low fluid levels have nothing to do with maternal hydration. But, I'm sure if you asked five doctors, you'd get five different answers!
I would be freaked too, even after going through it before. Just try your best to rest when you can and get what you can done just in case. Fingers crossed for you that everything will work out fine!
I just got back from Dr. appt and when I told her baby was lazy today, she gave me us and fluid had dropped from 9 last week to 7.5 and said if baby conntinues to decrease movements to call. Otherwise another u/s next week and if it is below 5 she'll deliver with cs. Rest and more fluids.
Sounds like we got same advice.