If it's not amniotic fluid what is it?
Hello,
This is going to be a long one, I'm afraid, cause I need a bit of explaining!
Last night around 8pm I was lying on the couch watching telly when I felt a small popping sensation, and a bit of liquid. Being about 2 weeks before my due date (and fully expecting that I will go overdue) I thought it was a bit strange, but wasn't about to get too excited and think it was anything important. Went to the toilet and put on a pad to catch any more unexpected leaks. Well there certainly was more. I reckon there was about half a cup or so. It was all clear and had a semeny smell about it. So, even though I had no contractions and otherwise felt fine, I thought I should keep the midwife updated and gave her a call to let her know that I thought my waters had broken. Her advice was that it sounded like things might get moving during the night, but if not to give her another call at 8am in the morning to come into hospital.
Had a very sleepless night, due to both the excitement (although I was trying to keep relaxed) and having to get up every three quarters of an hour with another rush of fluid, with several pad changes. There had been some minor contractions, but nothing worth writing home about.
So, 8am comes and I ring my midwife with the news that there isn't much to say apart from the continuing leakage. She tells me to come into the Women's Assessment clinic to see her at 9:30. I get there and she tells me that she is going to monitor my contractions and bubs heartbeat, as well as check whether what I am leaking is actually amniotic fluid or not. I have to lie on the bed and let the fluid seep out onto a pad on the bed. Unfortunately I had just been to the toilet and leaked most of it out there, so I spent quite a while waiting on the bed. She also checks bubs position and says he is 2/5 engaged and that she would have expected that he would be further down in my pelvis by now.
At this point with no fluid to check, the midwife decides to take a specimen. She tells me it's pretty dry in there, but takes a swab. The swab should turn purple if it is amniotic fluid, but it goes brown instead. She checks my dilation and says that my cervix is closed. She also takes a slide from the swab and checks for ferning, which is not there, meaning not amniotic fluid- she gets this double checked.
Meanwhile bubs has been asleep for the whole heartbeat test and she needs to test whether his heart rate returns to normal after activity (which she needs an awake baby for). After a bit of prodding he still won't wake up, so she decides to give me a sweet cold drink (OJ) to get him to wriggle. She sits me up in the bed to drink the OJ and while I'm drinking it I have another leak (hooray I think- now she can test this and we can find out). The heartbeat test goes fine and I tell the midwife about the leak. She is adamant that my cervix and vagina would be wet if I was leaking amniotic fluid and goes by the original tests without testing the new fluid on the bed. She also explains that if the cervix is so closed, there is no way that there could be fluid leaking out.
I'm fine with the explanations, but that doesn't tell me what it is that I'm leaking! Her suggestion is that it's urine and that I am getting a lot of pressure on my pelvic floor, making me leak. My only problem with this is that the fluid has been completely clear (or clear with a pinkish tinge) and doesn't smell like urine at all (smells like semen).
So, I'm back home now, waiting for some proper contractions and thinking about labour (which is ridiculous because in theory I could still have 2 weeks to wait!). About an hour ago I needed to go to the toilet and it felt like I was weeing and proper yellow urine came out (totally different to the leaking I have been having- which is still coming in dribs and drabs into my pad.)
OK, enough background- my questions are - if it's not amniotic fluid, what is it? And can sitting upright, rather than lying down affect how much might come out, and can it affect whether my cervix is open or closed?
Thanks for reading so far - any advice would be much appreciated!
