Polyhydramnios anyone???

[Lua]

Recent visit to MW indicate my uterus fundus is 3 weeks ahead of where it should be. A growth scan was performed that indicatd excess fluid (23.9 cm - above 95% percentile). Baby meassurements indicate normal head circunference but very large abdominal circunference (97% percentile).
I gather it could be due to diabetes or something more serious with the baby.
Anyone knows anything about this that could help me out???

Thanks!

sorry - don't know anything about this but just giving it a bump for you

Hi Lua, no experience myself but a friend had polyhydramnios and baby was absolutely fine. She was monitored really closely from when it was diagnosed as they were worried there could be something wrong but all the dreadful fears came to nothing, thank goodness. Do hope it will be the same for you.

Thanks JM! It is nice to keep remembering there is a good chance was all OK. I am just hoping someone can put all this peces together and tell me something more about odds of being OK or not.... Did your friend had a pretty big baby or diabetes by any chance?

I had it with both my term pregnancies Lua. How far along are you? Mine became an issue in the last few weeks in both cases, and my consultant was reassuring in that he said:

• one sonographer's polyhydramnios is another's uneven distribution of liquor around the baby (an odd lie can push a lot of fluid into a measurable space which then bumps up the reading)

• late-appearing polyhydramnios is almost certainly not indicative of problems in the baby, more likely increasing glucose intolerance that might lead to gestational diabetes

• some people just produce loads of fluid anyway

I had a couple of extra scans with ds (my first pregnancy as he was also transverse, but not excessively big) and glucose tolerance tests which came back OK for diabetes but not bottom of the range.

Both my babies were big and healthy and arrived with a mighty splash on the operating table (the surgeon doing the first actually said, "Jesus Christ! Can we have a bucket please?"

Are you booked for glucose tolerance testing, Lua? And what other support have they offered you? Was your anomaly scan OK?

Try not to be anxious, easier said than done I know. I hope you get plenty of reassurance from the team looking after you. Mine were great.

Thanks very much for your response Marina,
I'm booked to see the consultant tomorrow, and the MW assume I'll be having a glucose intolerance test.
Baby is lying transverse, so it is possible that the odd positioning is creating odd pockets, I like that hypothesis. I am 27 weeks. So I'm not sure if this is considered late or not... How far were you when high fluis was diagnosed?

Transverse could be a major contributory factor Lua [hopeful emoticon], it really was with ds. Feet up, under my ribs, hence high fundal measurement, all the fluid out front.
I was later on, but not much...31 weeks, when it was diagnosed.
Very best of luck tomorrow Lua. Let us know how you get on. I was quite spooked at first by my diagnosis with ds (a lot more nonchalant with dd!) but greatly reassured once I had seen the consultant - hope for the same for you.

I'd say definitely transverse lie has something to do with it. Am sure I've heard of that before

hi lua - i have also just been told i'm 3 weeks ahead (35 weeks instead of 32), though my midwife just said this was excess amniotic fluid.
how did it go with the consultant, did it put your mind at rest, did you get another scan? i'm wondering if i should kick up more of a fuss.....

Hi Shrub,
The doctors weren't too helpful. They kind of told me what I already new...Basically the statitistics are that 60% of the cases never has the cause identified, 20% is due to maternal diabetes and 20% due to fetal developmental problems. I will go in next week and do a glucose intolerance test and will have growth scans every two weeks to see if baby is ok and whether fluids are increasing. If they keepincreasing is a bad sign.... But nothing can really be done in the short term to relieve my anxieties...So I'm not exactly happy...

I think that the worst case scenarios can be sacry. Don't want to freak you out, but I woulpress MW for a proper diagnosis. Large uterus measurement can be sue to many things... it is good to know the reason! My MW wasn't too concerned, she just assumed baby was big. I am glad i pushed for a growth scan.
Hope you don't have polyhydramnios!

Lua, hi. I have seen your name on the ante-natal thread. I had polyh. with my 1st child. I was sent in for a 2nd growth scan, as was huge. This was 38 weeks. While I was being scanned a problem was noticed and T was born my emergency section. He was flat on delivery but after Narcan and oxygen he was fine. he is now nearly 4 and the healthiest child I know. I don't think he was in trouble because of the excess fluid but no one seems to know what the prob was. I'm not fussed as he is here and what we don't know, we can't know. Just keep an eye and have checks whenever you can. Good luck!!

thanks for taking the time to reply lua especially as you must have had a difficult day - my midwife seemed quite dismissive as i'm due to see consultant in 3 weeks to discuss c-section. have seen so many different midwives with this pregnancy its hard to know who to contact. what is the difference between excess amniotic fluid and polyhydramnios?
why do they make it so hard for us when we are feeling so vunerable - this is when we need all the support and information we can get.
hugs to you and hope they can resolve this for you xx

Hi again! Sorry if I confused you shrub, polyhydramnios is the same tjing as excess fluid. What I meant was that jsut ecause your uterous is large does not mean you have excess fluids. They would need to do a scan to check that out. It could also be because of big baby or the way baby is lying.... I'll keep my fingers crossd for you that it is something else... but I do think they owe to you a proper diagnosis.

Women with polyhydramnios have a higher risk of preterm labour, cord prolapse, and placent abruption. Again, most are OK. But for me that kind of information is important because I would never rush to the hospital if I go on labour, since I hate loosing control over th eprocess IYKWIM. But know that I know I have polyhydramnios, I know I'll need to go in ASAP!

Nab, thanks for your message. Would you mind telling me what kind of problem your baby had? I am just trying to learn as much as I can....

HI lua, All we know with child number one was my bump was measuring too big for my dates. This being my second growth scan, I didn't want to go in for another as it seemed like a lot of worry for nothing. He was predicted to be 7lb 12oz just a few hours before his birth (at 38 wks) and was in fact 6lb 12.5 oz. While I was being scanned something flashed up to do with the placenta. I think it was the blood flow to it but I'm not sure. The sonographer escorted us back to the ward and we thought she was just being nice! It was all kept v calm to the point that I thought they were doing us a favour by doing a section. I was 1cm and thought I was in labour. The printout was registering contractions which the baby wasn't coping with, his heartrate was taking too long to go back to normal, but I wasn't feeling anything. Thomas was born and was flat on delivery. A huge amount of water came out when they broke them. I thought I had heard T cry so relaxed but found out later he had breathed in but then didn't again. He needed Narcan and oxygen, and was just about to be started on resusitation when he took a breath. He was x-rayed at 90 minutes of age as the tube they put down his throat came back kinked and I wasn't allowed to feed him incase my milk drowned him. I fed him when 3 hours old and he's never looked back. For 3 days I thought I would lose him and didn't really feel he was mine, then a midwife casually said, he's fine and that was that. My community midwife read my notes and didn't really know what was up. No one seems to which makes it very hard. One thing I have just remembered. The day before all this we went in for monitoring as we couldn't get anything to make him move. On the monitor he was ok but I think the signs were there as somehow the trace was thrown away....that should never happen. We were just lucky we were told to go in earlier than my scan to arrange to see a consultant and a midwife said I had to be moniotred first. They really didn't want me to go for a scan but thankfully we did. A baby shouldn't slow down their movements just because they are getting near to be born. We will never know what the problem was but we do know the chances are we wouldn't have a nearly 4 year old boy as he is now, if at all if we hadn't got lucky with certain members of staff. I also had itching but tests for OC never came back as T had to be born. I hope this has helped in some way and not just scared you half to death. Just trust your instincts and fight for reassurance and proof that all is well. So what if they think you are a worrier? Better that, than a lost baby. GOOD LUCK. Feel free to email me if I can help in anyway. [email protected]

Oh Lua, just searched this thread to see how you got on. Sorry to hear you and Shrub are not getting much concrete info at present (good to hear everything turned out OK for little Thomas after a scary time for you Nab).
The only "problem" my polyhydramnios caused me was 2nd time round when I ended up with another elective because of the cord prolapse risk. Mine was compounded because dd was not engaged either.
I really hope both you too have similar positive outcomes, as Lua says, that is by far the likeliest scenario.

hi lua - well i pushed for a scan and got one yesterday - they are now saying its the baby thats suddenly got bigger and not the fluid.though they also said amniotic fluid can go down aswell as up which might explain me having ketones in urine (related to getational diabetes) a couple of weeks ago and then this visit none. have you had your next scan yet or more info? thinking of you xx

Hi Marina and shrubs,
I had ketones in my urine too! But MW didn't seem to indicate that was a problem.... Is this a sign of diabetes? I did my GTT tuesday, but haven't heard anything from it. I guess that means is OK?!

I guess they will scan me every two weeks from now on, are they doing the same thing with you shrub?

Marina, can I asked you about how the hospital managed you after diagnosis? Did they ever did a careful scan to rule out gastrointestinal problems with the babies? Did they have people ready to perform an operation in case baby did have a problem? How often did they monitor you?

Do you think I am crazy to travel to spain next week with excess fluid?

I really hate the idea of a c-section! Hope it doesn't come to that?

and above all, thanks for checking on me!!! There is so few people to chat about this!

hi lua - consultant didn't indicate that another scan will happen but after 4 midwives measuring me big, and all saying excess fluid makes me feel like refusing to be measured from now on. though i have also had friends who have had scans indicating big baby and then had a small baby!?
re: c-section, don't know if this is your first baby but understand your reservations, in a ideal world i would have water birth at home but when i had ds1 had retained placenta and near post partum haemorrage, could have cost me my fertility or even my life. had c-section with ds2 and please believe me it can be a magical experience, you can still have input and you get to meet your baby in 15 mins, i was walking about the next day- worth talking to your midwife about birth plan. what are your main worries with c-section? re:spain - if you speak spanish, i would go and take your notes with you and try and enjoy your holiday xx

re: ketones - i was led to believe that ketones can be one of the indicators of gestational diabetes but can also mean your body is using its reserves and to eat and rest more x

I did have a careful scan Lua, and as far as they could with ultrasound, they were able to confirm that ds and dd were both OK in the gastro-intestinal regions. Thereafter there was no talk of an early c-section with dd (younger child), because my previous history with ds strongly suggested a predisposition to large amounts of amniotic fluid.
With ds, who was diagnosed earlier, I had fortnightly growth scans, but they were fairly confident that the "polyhydramnios" in his case was down to frank transverse lie and a slightly larger than average amount of fluid. My bump was always over-height but by a consistent and non-increasing proportion.
I'm not sure what I'd do about the Spanish trip Lua...but I could worry for England at the best of times. I'd chase up the GTT result - I think it took a week all told for the result to reach my community team and be passed on to me - and take it from there. If you are also confident the scan has ruled out any problems with the baby's abdomen then personally I'd try and go, you deserve a break.
I fully sympathise with not wanting a c-section, I did not enjoy mine at all. But I do have two gorgeous children now...
Take care both of you.

snap re ketones, Shrub. These can appear if you have been too busy to eat breakfast that morning for example.

Just though I would let you know how I'm getting on. Did another scan this friday, and fluids were back to normal! yipeee!
Baby seems to be growing as expected, although his abdominal circunference is still a bit a bove dates.
I have been diagnosed with glucose intolerance though. I know that it is in a way good, since explains the other issues, but is a real bummer!

How are you getting along shrub?

Hi aviatrix - I measured big for dates throughout both pregnancies and was sent for repeated scans the first time (polyhydramnios was mentioned!). However, as it turned out, fluid levels were all normal and I just have big babies. By 'big for dates' I was regularly 4cm above where I should have been.

I dont know if this is any help, but i was "overdue" with ds by 4-8 weeks. Dont know which cause i had my dates wrong. Of course midwives were sick with worry, but I wouldnt agree to be induced as i wanted a home birth, as natural as possible. Baby was very big and the midwives said i had the opposite of polyhydramnios which is "oligohydramnios" (which is lack of liqor. Anyway, when baby was born, it turned out, there was plenty of fluid and in my estimation, was an attempt by the midwives to "scare" me into having a section. NOt saying this is so for you, but read all you can on it and make sure the midwives have it right. There was no "conclusive" evidence in my case that anything was wrong, and though the scans showed little liqor, there was plenty when ds was born.