Water breaking?

[Mollygirl]

I had PROM at 16 weeks with my daughter and when I went to hospital they did a swab which can tell them if it is amniotic fluid or not. The swab on me wasn't conclusive, but I took in the liner i had been wearing (I know it sounds yuk) but that was 100% positive it was amniotic fluid so they did an ultrasound 2 days later at my ob which picked up the low fluid levels also.

Luckily for me after a week of bedrest the fluid levels returned to an acceptable level the following week so I continued with the pregnancy until my waters broke (again) at 37weeks.

So, keep your pad if you get any more leakage so they can swab it.

Also, both the nurse and my ob didn't believe me when I told them it felt like my waters had broken, but I was adamant because it had felt like that with my son. So if you really think it was you might have to push for an ultrasound to check.

They did tell me that I would probably go into labour in 48-72 hours, so I would keep an eye on things just in case.

Also, no sex allowed if your waters have broken due to risk of infection...

Goodluck, hope everything goes ok.

[cari28]

There is an exam that we do at the hospital to determine if a woman's water has broke. First there is the nitrazine test...it is a strip of litmus paper that we touch to the woman's vagina...it should turn blue if there is amniotic fluid present (however, it can turn blue with urine as well.) So the definitive test is the Fern test--we take a sample either from the pad a woman wears in or through a cervical exam and place it on a slide. The slide is examined under a microscope...if amniotic fluid is present the slide will contain "fern". It actually looks like a fern branch. Once there is confirmation of the water breaking, the woman needs to be delivered within 24 hours to prevent infection and fetal distress.

Good luck.

[blue daisy]

the current methods of testing for amniotic fluid are not reliable, and in fact can result in unwarranted medical intervention which places both mother and baby at unneccessary risk

a cervical exam is invasive and unnecessary to simply determine if the waters have broken, and can cause discomfort and loss of control for the woman, while undermining her confidence her in birthing body and introduce infection to the vagina and the baby...again resulting in medical intervention

this is the beginning of a cascade of intervention