Writing this post to get some advice for a girlfriend of mine. She is 19 weeks with 2nd bub (a week ahead of me) and has been told last week and again today after follow up appt that she has very little amniotic fluid. The baby is still growing and active but doesn't have the cushion of the fluid to float around in nor for the lungs and kidneys to continue developing. At the moment they will be having another scan in 2 weeks to see how things are going but have been told that the pregnancy could continue to full term but that the baby will have severe complications and will not survive. Also that mum and baby are at risk of infection.
On googling we have read that bed rest and increasing fluid intake can sometimes help, but I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this so early in pregnancy and what was your outcome?
Were you able to increase your amniotic fluid at all? The drs have told here there is not much she can do but we're wanting to do something! Anything! Just not nothing!
I don't know all the in's & out 's but a friend from my MG had an amnio & the hole started leaking that night. So i would say around the same gestation. Her waters got very low to the point that just his head was in the fluid. I know they were concerned that if it dropped anymore then his head wouldn't be covered. He happened to be head down. There was a huge risk of infection due to the hole & at various times had ab's when blood tests showed a risk of infection. The hole sealed it self up over time & she ended up with more fluid at the time of his birth than is usual. She had a couple of steroid injections towards the end just to help with his lung development as a precaution & had to go on leave from work & rest. Regular scans, blood tests & monitoring. He was born on his due date perfectly healthy.
From your post you haven't said how your friends waters have become so low. Does she have a leak? Is it a condition within her pregnancy?
If your friend has a leak then there is a higher chance the area that the fluid is leaking from will seal up and fluid levels will build. The bigger concern would be if the fluid is low for another reason and if so why. The chance then of levels increasing would be low. There does need to be a certain Amount of fluid for her baby to be able to develop normally (lungs, kidneys, limps etc) FX the next scan shows an increase in fluid.
thanks for your replies. they don't really know why the fluid is leaking. She has been bleeding throughout the whole pregnancy which initially they weren't too concerned with but she has passed about 3 rather large clots. They seem to think that these clots are putting pressure on the membrane causing it to rupture and thus leak. The reason behind the bleeding and the clots is still unexplained so it's hard to know exactly what's going on.
She has been told that there is very little fluid. they can see the uterus almost 'collapsing' over the baby as there is hardly any fluid there at all to keep in inflated if that makes sense.
at this stage baby is developing normally, but if the fluid doesn't improve in the next two weeks there is no way the lungs or kidneys will be able to develop.
and yes, there is the risk of infection ever present.
So sorry for your friend, my cousin (in England) had an issue with her pregnancy with her little girl whereby she had very little amniotic fluid, so much so that her dr's were planning on terminating her pregnancy (this was last year).
After a lot of monitoring they didn't terminate the pregnancy and she made it to 28 weeks when her baby was born alive. My cousin became seriously ill as it appears the amniotic fluid was re-entering her body and she sustained a serious life threatening infection. Her baby passed away at 4 days old from liver and kidney failure but they don't know if it was due to the lack of amniotic fluid or due to her prematurity. Fingers crossed your friend can have a more positive outcome than my cousin and that both her and her baby are healthy.
I had Oligohydramnios with my daughter. It's unexplained, but it was linked to her birth defect (alot of bubs with this defect have low fluid)
It caused severe IUGR and DD was delivered at 34 weeks.
Does she have an ultrasound report? On the report (or she could ask her OB), see what it says. It should have a measurement on how much fluid is there, deepest pool, etc. And I'll conpare it to mine.
I was drinking 3ltrs a day and that helped my fluid from reducing any more.
Also, I was told the same thing about my daughter. She wasn't supposed to survive, she was supposedly going to have fatal chromosomal problem. But she is perfect.
She's not going to the Royal Women's in Melbourne, by any chance?
Very little amniotic fluid at 19 weeks
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