Advice - Polyhydramnios

[Sammie1990]

Hi all
really hoping someone can offer me some advice. I had a growth scan at 28 weeks due to baby being on the small side. At the scan they said I had mild excess fluid, the max for it to be classed as normal is 8cm and mine was 8.5. The consultant booked me back in for a scan in 4 weeks time (which will be next week). Last week and this week I have noticed that my feet, ankles and calves have become swollen. I am also very short of breath, I’m a teacher and I am struggling to actually teach a lesson as I can’t talk for long enough without becoming breathless. I also have a constant feeling of needing to pee. My bump feels very heavy and ‘full’ although I was told by my midwife that as I am small and short this would be the case as baby grows. Also horrific heartburn to the point it wakes me up at night. I’ve looked on various websites and they say that these symptoms are symptoms of severe excess fluid. Im
not sure if I am being over the top considering I have a scan next week or if I should attempt to be seen earlier. I also don’t understand what the treatment plan is if you have severe excess fluid? As in will being seen earlier make any difference? Some advice would be very much appreciated!

Are you having your BP checked regularly? The swelling is also a flag for preeclampsia so if not, I'd ask at your GP to get this checked.

Heartburn, acid reflux all typical in pregnancy so may or may not be a flag. I had it terrible, did indeed have excess fluid. No one did anything as I was already under monitoring for baby being big.

How are baby's movements.

Hi
thanks for the reply. Yes I had it checked last week and at every appointment it’s actually been a little on the low side rather than high.

movements are all absolutely fine, I feel him a lot and it’s normally at regular times.

if for example the fluid is severely high I don’t understand what the risks are to the baby other than going into labour early. Sounds awful but if there’s nothing they can do I don’t want to keep being checked all the time!

I had quite a lot of extra fluid with mine. There was no treatment as such, but it did mean when my waters broke it was quite something! The fluid does fluctuate quite a lot as well.

If you're worried definitely check in with the midwife team and get your bp checked. I found with the extra fluid it was harder to feel my baby's movements, and they were very clear they'd rather check me 100 times and be fine than not check and not know there was any problem.

It’s worth being checked all the time. I had this in one of my pregnancies and it was very uncomfortable but you need checking. Sometimes it can be caused by parvovirus, or other conditions, other times it’s just one of those things. Don’t take the risk though.

Thanks everyone. I’ve been checked for the virus and diabetes and both were clear. You are right though it is better to be safe, I just feel pressure from work being out so much!

out of interest did either of you babies arrive early?

I had polyhydraminos with my last baby I think it was 12cm at the highest. I had detailed scans because it can sometimes be caused by a problem with the baby's swallow. My baby was born three days before due date weighing 7lb 8oz, my waters went in a spectacular fashion but had to be induced as there were no contractions (typical for me) Be prepared for peeing a lot afterwards, I shrunk spectacularly in the first ten days as I lost all the water I had been carrying. Within days you wouldn't have known I had been pregnant.

My situation was a bit more complicated as mine was caused by baby having a heart problem (but if you’ve been scanned this would have been spotted in yours - it’s rare so don’t panic about heart conditions!). Don’t worry about time off work, before you no it baby will be at nursery and you’ll be going back to work and nobody will be holding your pregnancy problems against you! It’s a short period of your life so don’t worry about work or other peoples opinions, just do what’s best for you and your baby. Good luck OP!

The risk with too much fluid is that if your waters go it can cause cord prolapse, I was being induced anyway, but I did notice with that pregnancy my bump felt a lot more uncomfortable than it did with my previous, I also had a lot of water retention elsewhere, legs and ankles were huge. My waters were broken in theatre, but went on to delivery on the labour ward.

Please try not to worry. I had with both of mine - undiagnosed though until afterwards. I had such an enormous bump with first that was bigger than NCT person with twins. Was scanned when overdue and told baby was not engaged as too large - expect him to be 12 pounds!!! Was a 9 pounder and actually turned out to be mostly fluid. When my waters broke I had to lie flat on the back seat of the car to prevent cord prolapse - he was transverse lie so needed emergency c-section.

With my second child was also breech due to excess fluid. When I had my planned c-section they told me afterwards I had 4 x the normal amount of fluid. My stomach is a disaster zone but otherwise all good and kids were happy and healthy babies.

Also my son was 10 days overdue - second was planned c-section so not sure what that would have been but delivered one week before due date. So not necessarily the case of being early. My Mum apparently also had an enormous bump - we say we provided our babies with luxury wombs with olympic swimming pool size space.

No 2 was healthy enough to donate umbilical cord and was told was a lovely long cord so obviously baby was being well nourished. Was told all kinds of nonsense about why my bump was so big such as "you must have weak stomach muscles" (well I certainly do now) but was slim size 10 at 5 foot 8 before that.

I’ve had this severely twice. My deepest pool was 18cm and I was scanned twice a week from 16w until 36w by my consultant. Each time there was the chance she would want to drain the fluid (weighing up the risk of draining it inducing labour, and leaving it causing early labour).

At 8.5cm you are only just over the threshold; I really wouldn’t worry. Your doctor will have checked for structural issues such as the baby not swallowing, that might cause the higher fluid, along with Gestational diabetes.

The risk of polyhydramnios is cord prolapse, which can be fatal, but as your fluid is only mildly high I wouldn’t worry about this.

I would get your swelling checked out. I was VERY swollen too and told it was normal, but I did have pre eclampsia in the end. At the end of the day, you are your baby’s advocate so go to MAU as many times as you need if you are worried.

Sorry, just seen you asked whether our babies were early. Both of mine were, but not massively so, both 37 weeks on the dot.

Hope you're doing ok and good luck with the birth!