Water Breaking During Pregnancy

Contents:

• How the Waters Break in Pregnancy
• The Reason Why the Waters Break
• Waters Have Broken, What to Do Then?
• What’s the Time that Has to Pass Before Childbirth Begins?
• Waters Have Broken, But there Are No Birth Contractions

Water Breaking in Pregnancy

Breaking the water in pregnancy can happen at different times. It depends on a number of factors. So, let's learn how and when waters have to have finally broken, and what to do when parturient is not yet in labor.

How the Waters Break in Pregnancy

In the case of favorable course of pregnancy the average amount of amniotic fluid is 1.5-2 liters, depending on a female organism. How waters in pregnant women break before the moment of childbirth? At the normal course of pregnancy the waters break all at once at the same time, so they should be noticed easily. Just imagine that about two liters of amniotic fluid have poured out at once from your genitals.

Do you think you could miss seeing that? However, if pregnancy lasts with a number of complications, or if the female organism has some features, then amniotic fluid may breaks in different ways. For example, it may leak gradually for 1-3 days and you can understand what it is only from how it looks externally.

If waters had broken at home, then first of all there’s no need to worry, because you have plenty of time to reach hospital. Above all in this case is not to worry too much about that, as the child can spend still some time in mother's womb without any harm for his life. Therefore pack slowly all your things which would be necessary for maternity hospital, and go there calmly.

The Reason Why the Waters Break

Waters breaking shows that the child is about to be born. However, in certain cases waters break before their time has come. Then there may be reason to suppose that there may be certain pathologies. If waters have broken, then pregnancy has to be completed surely by childbirth, because the child won't be able to live in the mother’s womb long in such condition when he would inevitably perish.

Another frequent occurrence is when waters break little by little. In this case if it isn't feature of female organism, then the doctor in charge has to observe such state, especially if leaking happens long before estimated day of childbirth. In that case a special treatment has to be appointed to the pregnant woman. This treatment should be sufficient to prevent amniotic fluid loss, which in turn could reduce risk of formation of various pathologies in the newborn, or of premature birth. Anyway, if during pregnancy you have noticed strange discharge from vagina which weren't before, then surely see your doctor.

Waters Have Broken, What to Do Then?

So, what you have to do if waters have broken? This is the actual question for many women in a delicate condition. And the answer would be useful also to those who plans children desired. So, the answer will be obvious: after amniotic fluid have broken, it is necessary to go to maternity hospital without delay.

Such need is motivated by a whole series of circumstances:

• when amniotic water breaking has occurred, it is necessary to estimate a uterus neck state without fail;
• in certain cases amniotic waters can break without birth contractions;
• in certain cases umbilical cord can partially prolapse at the time of waters breaking. But at the same time pressure on the cord would cause cord compression and beginning of a prenatal sharp hypoxia of fetus which is fatal in most cases.

On the whole, after the waters have broken, it is necessary to go to maternity hospital immediately in order to avoid wasting precious time of your child. Especially, if to consider that the neck of the uterus may be rather immature and it may take a while to accelerate this process.

But on the other hand, such prolongation of waterless period leads to increase of probability of intrapartum infection development. Therefore the earlier childbirth would begin after the waters breaking, the much better it would be for the child and his pregnant mother.

What’s the Time that Has to Pass Before Childbirth Begins?

Many people wonder if waters have broken, then how long will it take till the child is delivered? Can we figure out such time interval? Let's consider the second variant, when waters have broken firstly, before a birth contraction. The amount of amniotic fluid may take any value within the range from 1.5 liters to 2 liters. A period from the beginning of waters breaking during the labor is usually called waterless. It is full of increasing discomfort for the child.

On average it is considered that the safe waterless period for the child is up to 12 hours from the moment of the beginning of waters breaking. In case of its excess, the maternity hospital personal generally use special stimulating preparations causing childbirth. If the waters break with blood, it is necessary to call "ambulance" urgently. But don't confuse bleeding with mucous stopper which can consist of seemingly innocuous bloody inclusions.

Waters Have Broken, But there Are No Birth Contractions

Many have always been most interested to know what might come before – birth contraction or breaking the water? As a point of interest, in case of normal course of pregnancy both of these two occurrences are possible. Each pregnancy is individual event therefore the question of the beginning of patrimonial process is interesting not only to primíparas, but also to already skilled mummies. Cases when waters break gradually are not frequent. Such period can last from 1 to 3 days.

The interval of time reaching up to 6 hours is possible to consider as a waterless safe period. An admissible interval may be up to 24 hours, seldom – to 72 hours, but such amount of time could result in serious consequences. Therefore, if the amniotic waters are breaking, it is necessary to go to maternity hospital without any doubt. In the case if the waters have broken and there are no birth contractions, the doctor has to assign the special preparations stimulating labor. If such measures don't help, then a Cesarean section must be performed.

Video: Water Breaking during Pregnancy