Hind waters or stress incontinence....

[icravecheese]

Hi Ladies,

Sorry in advance - possibly a TMI thread!

I just wondered whether there is anyone out there who has experienced loss of hind waters in pregnancy & could advise me? I only ask because I am just over 37wks & I wear a sanitary towel every day now due to what I thought was just stress incontinence (3rd baby, poor pelvic floor etc!).

However, I have read other threads about the 'smell' of amniotic fluid & how it is quite sweet / distinct compared to plain old urine. Sorry for the TMI but I sometimes wonder whether I have a hind water leak going on because the pad doesnt always smell of urine....more a much sweeter smell.

Is hind waters leaking a danger or can it happen weeks before baby is due with no ill effects? I know full waters breaking can lead to infection within 48hrs...but I'm pretty sure friends have told me about losing hind waters & nothing happening for several weeks after so presumably no / lower risk of infection? Its defo not full waters breaking - I know that feeling all too well from past experience!

I have a c-section booked for 9 days time & have midwife appt in just under a wk, not sure if I need to raise this sooner with health professionals....anyone got any experience of hind waters going??

Does it continue to leak after you have emptied your bladder? If so would probably be more suspicious for amniotic fluid. I think you should ring up the day assessment unit or labour ward and ask for advice. You have no way of knowing whether your waters have actually broken albeit with a small hole in the membranes. They may want to see you. After all you are pretty much full term and third babies can appear pretty quickly!

I would definitely call the hospital as they may want to see you. I had leakage at 36+1, so I called in, they asked me to attend triage to check whether the hind waters had indeed started to leak, which they had. They then kept me in, with monitoring and antibiotics every 6 hours, waiting for labour to start. It didn't so I was induced at 36+6 having been checked and given the abs regularly for all that time. So I guess if they have gone, even if they are just trickling, the hospital would want to know.

Sorry for the crap sentence structure and any bits that make no sense - typing on an IPhone and it's surprisingly hard to arrange my thoughts!

Go to the hospital : they will do a ferning or PH test. My waters leaked from 30.5 weeks and I was put on bedrest until 38w.

Thanks for the responses ladies. I just spoke to community midwife...she said that if my waters had gone or were leaking, a pad would be really quite wet in a matter of hours. I havent worn a pad all afternoon (often do due to lots of discharge) & actually no real 'wetness' at all. So am feeling reassured its nothing. She did say to monitor overnight & go up to labour ward if I'm still concerned in the morning. Looks like false alarm!

It does sound encouraging that you don't need pads- hopefully a false alarm then! I did need pads and found that while they weren't being steadily soaked I would feel a little flood on changing posture, e.g. standing from sitting, or sitting up from lying down, probably because DD's head was in the way of a constant flow but shifting position just let some waters past. You were right to let them know what was happening and hopefully you'll get a bit more time before this one arrives! Good luck :)

Please go in if baby's movements change or stop along with this water loss - my SIL lost her baby at full term and the autopsy showed it was due to lack of water and she never realised as the leak was so small and slow. I'm due in 3 months myself so I'm paranoid about it now! Sorry to be a downer but I pray no one has to experience the pain they (and the whole family) have felt recently.

Good luck x

Please go in. If there is a leak, however small, there is a risk of infection. Plus a leak will often mean early labour, and a steroid shot now could make all the difference to the baby's lungs if that were to happen in a few days. I was in hospital for nearly eight weeks, being monitored continuously, and we still nearly lost ds.

Oh, and I did not soak pads either.

Many thanks for the advice ladies.... I'm going to call the labour ward this afternoon for a 2nd opinion - spoke to community midwife last night who didnt seem concerned at all, but I'd like to spk to labour ward to see what they think too.

Have to admit, underwear has been totally 'dry' now since yesterday afternoon when I removed pad & concentrated on fully emptying bladder (midwife told me that its common, towards end of pregnancy, to not quite empty your bladder fully when you go to toilet - due to position of baby etc you can get residual urine that comes out once you've stood up, I do recall experiencing this during my 1st preg, so have been really trying to make sure bladder is empty before I leave toilet).

However I'd like a 2nd opinion nonetheless. C-section booked for a week tomorrow anyway....not sure if its the thought of that making me jittery / worry un-necessarily or not!

Good luck cheese I didn't mean to scare you but I think it's always better to be safe than sorry. My SIL blames herself for what happened but there really wasn't a gushing of waters or anything so she never knew... It's made me paranoid about knicker checking but I'll never be embarrassed about asking for extra advice or checks from the midwives if it means my baby gets here safely.

I'm sure all will be well and you must be so excited to be meeting your LO soon! Can you tell I'm counting the days until my first baby is here!

X

Thanks livened, gosh what an awful thing to happen to your SIL - & I totally understand how paranoid it must make you feel. Very exciting times waiting for your first baby though!
Am going to call labour ward once hubby gets home at 5pm (can't go anywhere before then with 2 little monkeys to look after!) but am hoping they'll just reassure me rather than call me up there today as I really haven't got much to show for my worrying - totally dry today & baby kicking nicely. Am defo keeping a closer eye now tho', so lots of thanks for experiences & advice x

When i was pregnant with ds and 39 weeks, my hindwaters went, and they didnt contiunously leak either! i rang the midwife and she told me i was wetting myself (what, wetting myself accidently for 4 hours ) it didnt smell like pee and in the end i rang the assesment center asking to come in.

they did an internal and found i was right, it was my hindwaters. as they had been leaking for more than 24hours i was told i was going to be induced!

so be firm! if you dont think its pee you bloody well tell them its not pee!

Hi cheese, it's good to hear that you are seeking further reassurance if you aren't completely satisfied that it's not your waters, particularly after livened's SIL's terribly sad loss.

It won't take the hospital long at all to do an internal check to confirm whether the water's are leaking - I wasn't prepared for the rather charming industrial sized Ever-ready torch (which looked like it might have belonged to a mechanic at some point) shining up my fanjo but hey-ho, it helped do the job!

When labour didn't follow, they would have induced me sooner but there was no space on the delivery suite, emergencies kept bumping me down the queue and the monitoring showed that DD was happy - they did take the leaking very seriously though and it's clearly not something they would let you potter on with. Best to be sure.

Again, all the best.

Just to update, spoke to labour ward & they didn't seem overly concerned either, particularly given no fluid overnight / all day today. However she said that I could call community midwife tomorrow morning & ask to be visited at home tomorrow for examination
Will see how I go tonight. Thanks again for all the advice x