Low levels of amniotic fluid.... Experience and thoughts please...

[rachaelsara]

I'm a doula, fairly green, only 6 births under my kaftan. My current client (35 weeks) has been told there's not enough amniotic fluid and given all sorts of scarey complications to look forward to.

Please tell me what you all know...

Many thanks!

Bump

I have lowered am and being monitored with weekly scans. I think they monitor it, and if it gets too low for baby they induce but not sure, hope there will be an expert along soon!

Movement good, don't know the exact figures. The Consultant told her to expect under-developed lungs abd club foot. Only diagnosed by scan, scans weekly from now on. They have checked the flow through the cord and it's fine.

I know nothing about this, so all info is great, thank you!

I don't really know what has caused the alarm other than the bump is a few cm smaller than it should be, but the baby isn't worryingly small and nothing abnormal has been flagged from scans to date.

Sorry I keep disapearing, 6yr old dd nagging me.

A home water birth was the first choice. I've been encouraging her to think about ways we can control the environment as much as possible with light, clothes, oils, music etc so the hospital experience will be as personal as we can make it.

The early epidural is something to consider too...

you say your dp noticed fetal heartrate was low? wasn't anybody monitoring the trace? how low was the hb? sorry for the questions just interested in care in labour etc..

With my DS I was induced because of low amniotic fluid at 40+1. He was born after an exceedingly quick labour of 1hr 45 mins. I progressed from 3cm dilated to 8-9cm in about 45 mins. I had wanted a drug-free birth but ended up with pethidine as it felt like one continual contraction (although I have nothing to compare it against).
For me it was actually not a bad experience at all. I might even go as far to say I enjoyed the labour/birthing process because of the end result (maybe the pethidine helped too). My DS was just over 6lbs when he was born. Perfectly formed.

Mine were picked up at 38 wks when my bump measured 30 wks. I had to be induced straight away.

Dd2 was very small and had to go straight to NICU after delivery. She did have Calipes (sp?) (club foot) but the physio gave us exercises to do, then put her legs in casts for a few weeks to straighten the feet and they're normal now.

My induction didn't progress as quickly as the paed wanted so I had to have a drip to speed things up which resulted in me needing an epidural, so that's something to prepare for.

I had a ridiculously small bump all the way through, and had several growth scans. Got scanned at 39+5, fluid found to be almost non-existent so was scheduled for induction 2 days later, but went into labour the night before. My waters never went because there weren't any (am still waiting for them to break and DS is 3 ).

Labour was ok, although DS did eventually get distressed and they pulled him out via ventous.

The most important thing is that your client's baby is healthy - probably worth her going with whatever the doctors advise at this point.

Mine was diagnosed at 31 weeks, and then ctgs showed decelerations in the heart rate too so pregnancy became high risk (and I had steroids, weekly scans, daily ctgs and a few hospital stays etc).

DS was induced at 39w (their dates - 37-8 mine which was probably closer to what he looked like) by CS after a failed induction (and increasingly ominous ctgs). Turned out to be a good thing that he was rescued when he was (placenta was failing, although it had been fine earlier on). DS was fine, 9.5 lb, but he did need physio/osteo as he'd been stuck in one position for ages and had a frozen shoulder/neck. (He also had a pretty flat head.)

Personally, I'd be worried about a home birth in these circumstances but that assessment is just based on my own past experience. DS seems to have been squashing his own cord a lot at the very least.

I would suggest keeping a very close eye on foetal movement (DS didn't move much as he couldn't - but he was born incredible strong as a result) and then checking that the baby can move OK over the first few weeks.

(Lenin Grad - I am at the fact your dp had to pick up the drop in heart rate.)

BTW I think the consultant is being a bit too scary (mine was very matter of fact and calm and that really helped).