Early Polyhydraminos Help??

[dogmuminsurrey]

first time post here…
I’ve been diagnosed with early severe polyhydraminos (excess amniotic fluid) at 24 weeks. I’m huge already and look like I’m full term… The deepest vertical pocket was 16.3cm! And my AFI is 54?!

I can’t find anyone with a similar case to mine… I’ve been referred to fetal medicine but don’t have that appointment for another 3 weeks, and have my GTT on Monday as they suspect gestational diabetes.

everything I can see online suggests Poly this bad and this early is highly likely to be down to a fetal abnormality.. but nothing was seen in any of my previous scans.. even my fluid at 20w I was told was normal…

looking for mums who’ve had cases as early and severe as mine… what was the outcome??

I did. DD is fine. No gestational diabetes either.

I was told to go in the minute my waters broke as risk of umbilical cord prolapse and at 27 weeks I was given the injections to mature the baby's lungs as they thought with all the pressure due to the amount of liquid that I could go into labour at any minute, but I actually went to 40+5 before DD arrived! When I went into labour, my waters broke with a pop and it was spectacular, they were still pouring out 4 hours later at hospital.

She is now a very precocious 2 year old and has absolutely no delays or disabilities at all (in fact she's a bit advanced compared to her older brother at this age 😊).

Same. No diabetes or fetal abnormality. Baby was huge though!

I was terrified as had to have scans every 2 weeks. When I delivered the midwife said its common with big babies. I blame my husband all his family have babies over 10lb !

Thank you! I’ve got myself into such a hole as it’s so bad so so early. I look like I’m full term at only 24 weeks.
im RH negative and now so worried he has anemia or hydrous and I’m going to loose him.
I’ve booked a private scan at a fetal medicine clinic on Saturday to hopefully give me some answers but I can’t help but think something has caused it to be this bad…

Mine wasn't diagnosed until they cut me and I flooded the theatre. However, he was already showing signs of distress before the surgery so please keep an eye on the baby's movements. If they change in either direction go in and get checked. My son might not be here without the emergency c section.

Yes I remember being huge, everyone asked if I was having twins and all my maternity clothes were too tight around my tummy from about 32 weeks! 🤣

@BirthdayRainbow he’s moving around a lot but I don’t think any more than usual.

@MiraculousLadybug im so big, much bigger than others who are 10/15 weeks ahead of me. It looks so tight and awkward, not like a normal pregnant belly…
I can’t stop crying worrying he’s not ok

Please just keep an eye. Right it down.

@dogmuminsurrey I got like that with DC1. I was so scared he wouldn't make it. I remember being told I had a 16cm cyst that was potentially going to stop him growing and all the joy went out of my pregnancy for weeks, I couldn't eat or sleep properly with worry. It's hard because all we can do is hope for the baby to be ok.

Also, I don't know if you've already found out, but they can do a procedure to reduce the liquid if they decide it needs it. I think they usually do it later down the line.

I hope everything is fine at your scan, and make sure if you ever ring the midwife or the maternity ward e.g. for reduced fetal movement that you start every call by telling them, "I have severe polyhydramnios" so you don't get dismissed or delayed with any concerns.

FFS write it down

@BirthdayRainbow ill write it down. I’ll count kicks in the hour and see how many I get

I hope all is okay. I nearly didnt have a good outcome so do tend to go the other way. It also doesn't seem to be well known that a baby suddenly moving more isn't necessarily a good thing.

@BirthdayRainbow I hope so too, but an AFI of 54 at 24 weeks doesn’t really seem like there’s going to be a positive outcome…

I am sorry to hear that. I don't understand the numbers as mine was all very last minute and get him out now situation. There wasn't even time to wait for some blood results.

Ok deep breaths. I’ve had poly that bad twice, and have 2 healthy dc asleep upstairs.

The first time, I was scanned twice weekly at fetal medicine from 16-36 weeks and the consultant said she had never seen such a severe case. Each time they weighed up the risks of draining the fluid vs the risk that could cause an early labour. Second time I was diagnosed with GDD so whilst I was monitored a lot, there was less concern about the baby having a serious problem.

Fetal medicine will check for a visible stomach bubble to make sure baby is swallowing, and will do a detailed anatomy scan. Please don’t fall into a google hole. First time around I detached and didn’t believe things would be ok. It was only on my last fetal medicine scan that a midwife said sometimes these things happen for no reason, and have a little bit of hope it will be ok.

Everything crossed for you.

I had it very bad. No issues at all related to it. I ended up being induced and giving birth 39+5 with an 8lb11oz baby :)

@anicecuppateaa thank you! Do you remember what your numbers were? I can’t help but feel I’m even bigger day by day..

Im pretty certain I have GDD as there was glucose in my urine, so my tolerance tests is on Monday. FMU can’t see me until 15th November at my hospital so I’ve booked a private scan with a fetal specialist tomorrow. They said they could see stomach bladder and kidneys all in my last scan but worried they might have missed something. I can’t see a way through this at the moment. He’s our rainbow baby and I feel so helpless just waiting around.

That sounds really stressful and tough - pregnancy can be such a frightening time. I think most cases of poly they don't find the cause, but in my experience look at your early chromosome screening test, torch screening (rare infections) and GD xxx you can take some steps to help any gd now - reduce sugar and carbs (no fun when comfort food would be helpful right now!). Sonographer said (so don't know how reliable) that the baby has more space to move with poly! But know it can sometimes impact the chord. With kick counting it's better to know the pattern than the counting. I'm quite busy so hard to do - so took a quiet Saturday and and used an app to see 'peak times' now on busy days I take a pause to check with the reassurance of knowing - there should be a lot of kicks at this time or only a few at this time. They are great about going in to check kicks too - really nice and understanding, and you get to lie there half an hour hearing the heartbeat. If you're stressed about low movements it's really helpful xxxx

I had this. And GD. I can't remember what they did about the excess fluid but I do remember I had a lot at 24 weeks (which is how the GD was diagnosed), but it stabilised. The GD on the other hand was a bloody nightmare requiring insulin.

Try not to worry too much. They will monitor you.

@PelicanPopcorn thank you. I’m so mad at myself not getting an NIPT done. By the time we were considering it, it was time for our 12 week scan and he came back low risk for all the chromosomes so we decided not to get one done.

@Elektra1 I’m really hoping it’s just the gestational diabetes but can’t help but convince myself there’s another factor at play here - all reports suggest poly this bad is something sinister 😓

Mine started off at 45, came down to 35 as pregnancy progressed. I think it was caused by the GD. I had no risk factors for GD (and hadn't had it in previous pregnancies) and it was the midwife who suggested I might have it, after my bump measured so large. I remember going for the GD test and the staff at that appt made me feel ridiculous for being there, they clearly thought it a total waste of time. Sure enough I had GD - and after a few weeks of failing to control it through sugar free diet, ended up on insulin for the rest of the pregnancy. That was not a fun Christmas!

@Elektra1 yes I’m very prepared for a sad Christmas without wine cheese or chocolate (or basically anything nice) but as long as baby is safe that’s the main thing.
I was on Metformin prior to pregnancy for PCOS and recently came off it so wondering if my blood sugar has just spiked after being controlled for so long

I dont know about AFI but my deepest pool was consistently around 20cm. I was at a level 3 London hospital and the consultant genuinely said she had never seen it so bad. These were also rainbow babies for me, and I promise I understand how difficult it is to not think the worst.

In your situation, a positive GDD result would be reassuring for me. First time, I had a small baby and poly which is apparently more of a worry. Second time I had GDD, poly and a 9lb baby which was less of a concern.

@anicecuppateaa Thank you so much this is keeping me calm. I have a scan tomorrow with the fetal medicine centre so hopefully that will be some peace of mind knowing that he’s ok. I have everything crossed 🤞🏻 ❤️

How did it go today with scan? Really hope you had some reassuring news x

@Kevinbaconsrealwife the consultant couldn’t find any obvious anatomical signs wrong with the baby which is obviously great news! She did say we just have to ride out the process and tick off all the possibilities that could be causing the poly one by one so first thing to do would be to do my GTT test on Monday… my sister in law has GD so I tested my blood yesterday which was annoyingly lower than everyone in my family.. but we’ll see what tomorrow holds.

Im grateful our little one looks to be ok, but no closer to getting answers as to why this is happening. Still really scared this is going to cause some issues or neural development problems post birth - at this point I’m just praying for a positive glucose test.

I just wish I knew why this was happening and knew for certain he’s going to be ok. I suffer really badly with anxiety anyway and this pregnancy has been so hard even before all of this happened..