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Doctors measure for low amniotic fluid
While many moms know what amniotic fluid is and that it is vital to a healthy pregnancy, not everyone understands exactly what it does. Most moms, whether it is a first time pregnancy or not, are aware that the baby lives inside the womb in amniotic fluid. The amniotic sac, which is filled with amniotic fluid and is where your growing baby lives, protects your baby from any injuries in case you suffer a blow to your stomach or your stomach is compressed. However, your amniotic fluid does much more than that. It is also responsible for helping your baby’s lungs to fully mature, but also their digestive system.
As you can see amniotic fluid is vital to a pregnancy, without it or the proper levels your baby is exposed to all sorts of dangers. So now that we know how important amniotic fluid the next question is about our levels. Many women want to know what is considered a normal level, while others want to know how low levels are determined.
What levels are considered normal?
Something that is important to understand about amniotic fluid levels is that they are constantly changing throughout the day and your pregnancy. During the day, your baby will routinely swallow amniotic fluid, but your baby will then pass it out as urine, which causes the levels to fluctuate on a daily basis. Not to mention as your pregnancy progresses the level of fluid increases, but after the 38th week of your pregnancy, the levels will start to decrease. In the beginning of your pregnancy, you will only have a few milliliters of fluid, but by the time you are 36 weeks along you should have between 800 to 1,000 milliliters.
How will I know if my levels are low?
The only way you will know if your amniotic fluid levels are low is through your doctor or even midwife. At every appointment, your doctor or midwife measures your bell to ensure that your baby is growing properly, but this also gives them information on your amniotic fluid levels. If your baby is measuring small, it can be a sign of low levels and further testing is required. In other cases, health care professionals recommend having fluid levels checked because certain factors are present, such as problems with blood pressure, specific medical conditions, or previous babies who were small for their dates or even low birth weights.
In order to check your amniotic fluid levels an ultrasound must be done. How this works is the sonographer will use the ultrasound to check your levels by looking at your amniotic sac. How they do this is by measuring four different sections inside your uterus, using the depth of the largest pockets. Some will also take another measurement of the deepest pocket. Once they have those numbers they will be able to work out your levels based on the amniotic fluid index. With these numbers, they can then compare your results to the levels that are considered normal for how far along in your pregnancy you are. Just as an idea if your amniotic fluid index number is 2 inches or lower or if the deepest pocket measured is less than .8 inches your fluid levels are low.
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