Low Amniotic Fluid - Larkspur,CO

Everything Mamy and Jennifer said, plus even as unlikely as it is, a 32 week (worse case scenario) preemie is not likely to have a lot of long term problems.

Congratulations!

:)

i had VERY low amniotic fluid with all three of mine, they're all fine :) they'll prob check you frequently, but mine was down to 3cm at one point(let me tell you, that was an interesting amnio to check for lung maturity!), and we all lived to tell about it. rest when you can, be sure to drink LOTS of water, pay attention to movement, keep all your appts, see your DR if you feel any leakage, alert your DR right away if you have a fever - i'm sure they already told you all this. most importantly, listen to your body, your instincts, try not to stress - and stop reading about stuff on the internet! good luck :)

Are you leaking? I am asking because my with my daughter I was leaking and I thought I was going to start in labor but I didn't then the next day I call my doctor told me to go the next day, when I got there they check and I was staring to have an infection and they send me to have a C-section.
Now 3 things:
1) My "baby" is 13, she is perfectly fine.
2) I don't think my doctor was very good, he just saw me as a $ face and barely check me(I didn't knew this until later with my second pregnancy)
3) I hear some women leak when they are about to have their baby but in my case I was leaking for 3 days and not signs of labor
However, if you start leaking I wouldn't wait 3 days like I did and call you doctor to make sure everything is ok.
Other way, I agree with all the advice that Jennifer gave you.
Relax mama, and enjoy your last days of pregnancy and sleep, sleep, sleep.

Could mean that your placenta is not functioning well, could mean that you need to drink more water AND rest, could mean that your baby's kidneys are malfunctioning (much more rare). We really don't know what makes amniotic fluid but dehydration can decrease it. So can poor diet, overwork, heavy exercise, etc. And a placenta that is not functioning properly.

AFI measurement techniques have SO much variability. Some techs will not measure a pocket of fluid if the umbillical cord crosses it, allowing the measurement to double just if the baby moves around a bit! The depth of the pockets are hard to assess as well. It is VERY subjective, that is why getting remeasured by a different person is important.

Many studies show that an AFI of 5 is the point at which there MAY be a relationship to complications associated with low fluid. (Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1999 Dec;181(6):1473-8 Perinatal outcome and amniotic fluid index in the antepartum and intrapartum periods: A meta-analysis) And when a woman has her labor induced, it is unclear whether all those inductions may have been what caused fetal distress OR was it the the low fluid!?!

The midwives have a trick to get AFI levels up, along with rest and hydration. Mom can slam a gelatin drink before it solidifies and this usually will get AFI levels up within 24 hours. The recipe for the gelatin drink is 1 packet of Knox gelatin dissolved in 1 cup of warm water, at least once per day.

C. M., CBE, CLD
Westside Birth Connection

Hey M.,

A similar thing happend to me with my first baby. We didn't want to find out the sex of our baby, wanted it to be a surprise. My hubby couldn't stand it, so at 30 weeks we found out we were having a girl. The Dr. said the baby looked healthy, but my amniotic fluid level looked low. He sent me to a specialist. Later that afternoon, I saw the specialist. He said that the "amount" of fluid was 11.3. A little low, but not too bad. The specialist wanted to see me the next week for a check. The next week it was 9.1. The specialist wanted to see me the next week again for a check. That next week the level was 8.9. It hadn't dropped much, so the Dr. felt like I could go 2 weeks. I went in 2 weeks later & the fluid level had dropped to 3.2. The specialist immediately called my regular OB & they scheduled me to be induced that night at 8pm. I was 34 & 1/2 weeks along. Needless to say, my body wasn't quite ready to have the baby, and I had intense labor for 18 hours after my water broke (contractions every 2 minutes, thank goodness for epidurals!). Finally, our little Sweet Pea was born. She was a healthy 5 lbs, 11 oz. They immediately took her to the NICU because she was so early & they wanted to check her out carefully to make sure she was ok. She was only on oxygen for 15 minutes. She was very healthy. (I hadn't ever noticed any leaking, I was working at a desk job & it wasn't stressful. I would come home from work & relax on the couch for awhile then fix dinner. Pretty low key. I was drinking at least 1 gallon of water a day, eating very healthy, walking for exercise, getting 8 hours of sleep a day, etc.) My OB did check out the placenta after Sweet Pea was born, but he didn't find anything really out of the ordinary.

She is now almost 6. She's in Kindergarten, and although she was physically a little slower than most of my friend's babies (she didn't walk until she was 15 months) she's been speaking in full sentences since she was 12 mos. Spoke her first word at 8 months (it was puppy). And, now is reading at well above a 1st grade level. She's the second top reader in all the Kindergarten classes at her school.

I was also worried that the same thing would happen the next time I got pregnant. I changed OB's because our insurance changed. I expressed my concern to him. He said that just like every pregnancy is different, every placenta is different. I had no problems when I was pregnant with my son.

The one thing the specialist told me was to not stress, things will work out. I had great faith that things would be fine, and they were. I have a few friends who's babies were born early (3+ weeks). None of them had any real issues Don't read the horror stories, that'll only add to your stress. (I hope my story doesn't scare you. I shared it to give you hope that things will work out.) You're already 2 weeks farther than I was when I found out!

Good luck, don't stress & have faith.

Hugs,
Shellie

Make sure that you're very, very well hydrated to help keep your fluid levels up. Shoot for drinking 3 litres of water every day (that's like the equivalent of 6 wine bottles of water!). Also, remember that your amniotic fluid is constantly replenishing itself and that your body is constantly producing amniotic fluid the entire time you're pregnant. The more hydrated you are, the more it will make and the higher your levels will be. Try not to worry too much - as long as you've confirmed that you don't have a tear or leak in your amniotic sac, you should be able to remedy this by an increased intake of fluids.

Updated

Make sure that you stay very, very well hydrated. Try to drink at least 3 litres of water (that's about the equivalent of 4 wine bottles worth of water!) every day. The good thing is that your increased hydration will have a direct impact on the levels of amniotic fluid, so you can be very proactive about this. Also, your body is constantly replenishing and making amniotic fluid, so the more hydrated you are, the more your body will make. As long as your doctor has confirmed that you don't have a tear or leak in your amniotic sac, increasing your water intake should fix this for you!

I second stop reading anything on the internet....most likely your OB will order an ultrasound, it s/he hasn't already. My first had low fluid which the OB watched, did weekly ultrasounds until they decided to induce @37 weeks. My daughter is healthy & had a great labor & delivery, no issues. So take it one day at a time, drink plenty of fluids, get rest when you can & call OB with any questions. The last thing you need on your mind right now are horror stories from the internet that most likely do not pertain to you or your baby. Good luck & hang in there!

Do NOT read anything on the internet! My daughter was diagnosed with a single umbilical artery at my 20 week ultrasound, I came straight home and googled it, and found a bunch of posts about babies with that condition being stillborn! Turns out that over 90% of the babies with that condition are FINE. I then did the smart thing, like you did, and posted on here to find other moms who had experienced the same thing. And I was almost immediately reassured. If this situation were in any way seriously threatening to your baby, you'd be in the hospital right now, not at home.

That said, what you can do is to kick your feet up whenever possible, treat yourself to a pedicure, drink lots of water, eat healthy foods, and relax. If you ever feel sick or don't feel the baby move for a half day, call the doctor. They will tell you what to do. It never hurts to come on into the dr. office and have them listen to the heartbeat.

I just barely went through this with one of my clients. And it happened at 32 weeks. She said the same thing - with everything she read online, it made her very nervous.
Have you gone in for a non stress test yet? Have they measured your fluid with an ultrasound? Hers ended up measuring at a 9 and she was fine. She had her baby at 39 weeks. They just kept close tabs on her. The same could happen to you and everything can be okay!
Make sure you don't do anything too strenuous and drink a ton of water. If you can, try and reach 100 ounces per day. If you can't stand that much water, drink gatorade, or if you don't want the sucrose you can buy the natural type of drink like this that is called recharge. If you want, you can email me at ____@____.com and I can tell you more of this situation - I'm not a doctor by any means, but just went through this with another client. You can be okay!