mears, can I pick your professional brains?

[steppemum]

Hi mears, I'm 5-6 weeks pregnant, and living overseas. Last time one of my colleagues who is a midwife did all my pregnancy care and I went home for the birth. I still have urine test sticks from that pregnancy, and so I rooted them out this morning and tested my urine. The ph indicate a ph of 8, which was right at the top of the scale, but everything else was normal. I feel fine, and the test sticks are now 1.5 years old. None of my books mention the ph, only glucose and proteins. I was hoping not to tell anyone here that I was pregnant yet, and to "book in" with my midwife friend at about 10 weeks.
Should I be concerned about a high ph? Is it just that the sticks are old? (dry climate and kept sealed since last needed, but even so..)
It is a pain if they are too old, because I can't buy them here, and they were pretty essential.
Any advice very welcome. Thanks a lot.

hi steppemum,
is there any paticular reason why you are testing your urine? Do you have a pre exisisting health problem?

Congratulations BTW

Hi steppemum - the sticks are likely be inaccurate because they are so old. Our sticks only last a few weeks as they are used so quickly. Alkaline urine can be a result of what you eat/drink and is not a major problem.
You will obviously be seeing a health care professional throughout your pregnancy. Urine testing will be done then and really doesn't need to be done more frequently than that. If your didn't have pre-eclampsia (hence protein testing) last time it is unlikely that you will have problems this time (unless you have a new man ). Same for glucose unless you had problems last time.
Enjoy your pregnancy. Congratulations.

thanks mears.
clairabelle - no doctors here, so my friend (the midwife) will do my antenatal care, and I do my own urine tests at home, and tell her/redo it at her house if there is anything abnormal. Don't really need to start yet, just getting organised1

congrats steppemum