Water breaking?

Hi All,

I just turned 34 weeks today. However, when I was getting out of the shower, there was a gush of water coming out and i am not sure if it was pee (although, i didnt feel like i needed to pee beforehand) or my water breaking. I couldnt collect any of it as it went down the drain.

Can the hospital check if it was my water breaking without a sample? If my water breaks will more water trickle soon? I am wearing a pad now.

I am a bit worried because I heard you can get infection if you dont get checked out when your water breaks but I have no sample of hte fluid, no pains but am getting very worried.

THANKS!

As you are 34 week I would be giving the hospital a call and tell them what happened and see what they want you to do they might want you to go down there so they can check you out... Good luck!

Keep the pad on and if you notice that it gets wet keep it and call the hospital.
If you take the pad in they can test it to see if it's fluid or not.

Hi all,

Thanks! for the reply. I rang the hospital anyway and they said to keep the pad on and see as well.

I will have to see if there is anymore fluids.

Cheers all!

I would be calling the hosp, at this stage anything is possible

in the case of suspected ruptured waters (PROM: premature rupture of membranes) you will be asked to pop a pad on and lay down for an hour. This will allow the pooling of the fluid in the vagina, and a subsequent gush when you stand up again. The fluid (amniotic fluid) ought to be clear or slightly pink stained, and smells musky

in the third trimester there is increasing pressure on the bladder and the pelvic floor, so sometimes women get what is called stress incontinence. That is cough, sneeze or move a certain way and you may leak a little urine

if it is your waters you will be placed on AB's to reduce any risk of infection, and the best thing to do is nothing, to encourage the baby to stay in the uterus for as long as possilble

when your forewaters break it does feel like a little pop for some women, and this is followed by a gush. Then everytime you move, cough, change position you will get another gush of fluid.

a hindwater leak (at the top of your bag of waters) will result in occaisonal trickles, and in some cases small hindwater leaks reseal

Hope this helps

x

Thank you!

Yeh the midwife said to leave a pad on, so I think i will be wearing one from now on. Although, theres no trickle of water or anything like that anymore.

Thanks all!!

I get minor leakages in the mornings but apparently that is normal.....

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.

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.

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