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I am pregnanty.
Welcome to Hello Bump. We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and more manageable, hopefully. I'm Grace Reubray. I'm pregnant for the first time and I thought I needed to wee a lot before, but now I'm need to we a lot.
We should talk about that though, and case you've got a urine retract infection. But let's get there down there a few minutes. Agoy. My Name'siana Pittman. I'm a former Olympian for Australia. I'm a mother of six beautiful kiddies, and I'm training to be an Obstritrician.
Each week, Yanner and I will be holding your hand, week by week through the mysterious, perplexing and sometimes very urgent and desperate miracle that is pregnancy, all the way from a poppy seed to a pumpkin. Oh week third and what what size is our baby? Too?
Sliced toaster is what Google told me today. I don't know if I like that though. It's about in the oven so you know.
Yeah, that's a theme there to leave there. I've got a baby otter. I love way they play.
With their own babies as well at the zoo is one of my favorite animals to watch. I have a short nose, a kidnap.
I love that.
I don't even know if there's a big nose or a long nose and a.
Short like an ant eater AQ. Maybe I don't know neither do I that's not our specialty.
I'm moving along. Baby is now weighing between one point five and one point six kilos on average. Remember guys, it's just an average, and it's about forty one centimeters long. Like that's getting it's all wrapped up inside you there, it's getting long.
When you look down at your belly, you go how and where.
Exactly because it's hide up inside or snuggling safe and how are they developing? So this week I think what's really sweet is they're starting to hear a lot more outside of the womb. So you know, we've obviously been playing music or talking about what sort of soundtracks you want for your birth, but it's time they can start really connecting with you. So if you do have a partner, it's a lovely time to start engaging them and getting
them to talk to the baby. Their eyes are starting to open now and they can certainly see the dark between dark and night and things like that, so it's quite a special time. And their lungs are starting to develop pretty well now as well. So we're almost moving past till a couple of weeks, moving past the point where you'd need steroids if you went into labor.
What's happening to me and what's happening to us?
Many women now find I get a lot more emotional in the third trimester, so because the reality of life and what's happening and the big changes are certainly coming close. So they're feeling less comfortable in their body. They're waddling a bit more. The swelling is starting to happen. We kind of talked about this at the beginning, but the urine refrequency means how many times you pee is becoming urgent.
So I have questions on this is Sometimes the needing to wei is just it feels like pressure. It doesn't feel like if you've been locked in a car trip and you go, oh my god, we need to pull over to wee. It's not that it's this it's a different pressure feeling. And then other times I can just be sitting at my desk and it is that feeling of needing to we of like, I don't know if she's just rolled and hit Yeah she hit the bladder or something like that, but it's they're two very distinct
different things. But I need to use the bathroom. That's right.
I mean you've got to remember that the blood, it's right in front of the uterus and it's now big and expanding, and that baby is literally sitting on your blood, which I'm sure you've heard your your grammars and your friends say.
Oh's sitting all my blood. I've got to go to the toilet, so it's real.
You know, your bladder is squashed, therefore it has a smaller capacity to hold urine. You've got an increased dilation of the kidneys, so the actual vessels that feed through, so you're having more increased GFI. So basically that just means how quickly your kidneys filter urine, and so you do pee a lot. We're trying to get rid of things you don't need. Sol it's trying to detox your body in certain ways. Along with your liver, and so
it's important that that happens now. I think the thing to consider though, is that changes in your urinary system also does predispose you to urine retract infections. So I think it's a nice time now to just say, if your urine is coming more frequently, it smells a little bit, there's a bit of stinging and burning, it's time to actually distill a sample for your doctor and check that there's nothing growing in that urine. Now, why is that important?
Couple of things. Firstly, no one wants a urin attract infection.
It hurts.
There's a chance it could go actually up into the kidneys called pilonephritis, and that's a really serious condition impregnant. We also know that any infection in the vagina or in the in the bladder can actually stimulate labor a little bit early. So we don't want to have an irritated bladder because we don't want the uterus to become irritated. So we call it ushrine irritability. When you have that, what we call threatened pre term labor, where you just get irritated, and.
Often it's just an infection. If we treat it, it goes away.
The scary thing is we have what's called asymptomatic back to EU, which basically means we have bacteria in our urine that sometimes doesn't even cause symptoms. So around this time you might even find that your midwife, if you have any increased frequency, might just get your pee in a cup. If it's normal, great, If it's not better to have some antibiotics now than later in the pregnancy.
So you can just request that next appointment to say, can I also do a urine.
Absolutely, and certainly if you've had urine attracted infections in the past so you'll be prone to it, it's definitely worth doing because we know our immune system is a little less good at fighting enduring pregnancy, so therefore we need to make sure that something's not growing. If you have diabetes again, you're even higher higher risk unfortunately, of getting infections, particularly of a urinary nature.
Is this normal?
Is normal?
Is this normal is around Braxton Hicks? Yes? So the only reference I have a Braxton Hicks is from an episode in Friends, Okay, go, where are we through that? When Rachel has them and like Ross is like, oh, most women don't even feel those? Is everything Okay, your preacher had come to the hospital.
What was it? What happened?
But it's something called Braxton Hicks contraction.
Oh god, that's a big deal. Most women don't even feel them.
Okay, no uterus, no opinion. That is my only And but I knew that it meant you're close to labor. That was sort of the only thing I kind of knew. And when I was having an appointment with my midwife, she was doing measuring me or feeling where the baby was, and she had her hands on me and she goes, oh, you're having a Braxton hick. Did you feel that? And I was like, oh, that, I kind of feel that. All the time. I had no idea what it was.
I just thought, well, actually I just thought it was like slow moving boughs or cramps.
And look, it could be that too, because that is definitely something that can that can mimic a Braxton hick. Now, I think the hard part about this is determining to split it into is it just a Braxton Hicks contraction? And we'll talk about the best ways to sort of determine that versus am I in preterm labor? Because again, between thirty and thirty four weeks. We don't want you laboring at home. Bobby still needs ane and natal support if they were to come out, and the steroids and
things like that. So the thing is to sit down and watch what those contractions do. Now, if you get distracted and you walk around the house and they go away, they're Braxton Hicks. If you drink some water and go to sleep and they're gone in the morning, they're Braxton Hicks. If they're regular and they're tight and you can't talk through them. Even if they are braxton Hicks, you need to come and see us to make sure that they're
nothing that's progressing, because it does happen. You know, we do have women that go into preterm labor, and one of the starting symptoms is back pain like a period, cramping in the vagina, and those tightenings. A lot of midwives will say, brax and Hicks start every around the back of your sides, are a little bit in your back. True contractions are the entire uterus, but I have certainly seen what we call some silent labor where there's those
Braxton Hicks contractions that do eventually turn into labor. So it's important to just get the checked, and.
What would you if you're having them, what's the next step that makes you go, oh, I should be getting that tech if it's they become regular or it is painful rather than uncomfortable.
Yes, exactly, and they don't go away with a position change, having a drink, having something to be walking around.
We spoke about when you should got a maternity leave. I get them more when I'm at work.
Of course, you're busy and you're moving around in the list. Abdominal muscles are stretching, and you're pulling all those tendons like another thing we often do. So if you came to the berth unit to see me, because it's often me these days on the birth unit that you'll come and say hello to, we would often give you some panadole. Initially, we'd pop the CTG monitor on and see if we can see any of that uterine activity, and we'd feel
your tummy. So if you feel your tummy and your tummy is rock hard and it's forty five seconds long and they're coming every couple of minutes, it doesn't matter if they go away, it's still better to come in and get an assessment. What will that mean A speculum. Sorry, ladies, but it does mean we'll have a look at your service. If your servix is open, those braxtons are real. If your servants is long, long and closed, we're less concerned. And I think this sort of comes back into the
urine as well. At this point you might find you yourself a little bit, so that can sometimes be your waters. So we get a lot of women coming in around this time and in pregnancy saying I think I've broken my waters and it's just that they're having a bit of an accident from the urine. Very normal, and I much prefer it to be UI than you're amniotic fly.
I actually called about that. It's like slightly gross, but I feel like it should be shared. Is that I was noticing I didn't look like discharge, but I didn't know if it was we But then I didn't know how much was amniotic fluid. Yeah, but it was definitely just more wet down there. And their advice was to put on a pad, yes exactly, and then wait either overnight or wait a few hours, and if it's like if it's amniotic fluid, it'll keep coming, it'll keep com backtly.
Most of the time, see, we've got these constantly at the moment, most of the time the leaking will keep happening. Now, the caveat to that is that sometimes you get what's called a hind Bader leak, and therefore you get a bit of a leak and it doesn't go But that tends to happen on repeat. You know, you have it one day and you'll have it a few more days later. You can come to the berth unit if you are concerned,
and we do these special tests. They're called an act and prom or a test that particularly looks at the proteins in the amniotic fluid and can differentiate it from urine versus your amniotic fluid. And why is it important? Guys? Oh, well, I'm only thirty two weeks as long as I'm not contracting, Why does it matter if I'm leaking, Because that amniotic fluid is basically what keeps your baby sterile and away
from the outside environment. So if your waters break, we need to consider giving you antibiotics and making sure that again there's no reason why your waters are broken, because you know, there's a high chance in the first forty eight hours after your water's broke that your baby's going to come, so it's just better if you're concerned to
have it checked. So I think on our tool kick this week is to make sure that you have something nice to rub into your belly because you're belly, you're starting to definitely grow and your clothes are changing, so you know, so you got your biooils or your coconut oil. And there's an amazing obstution actually down in Melbourne as she's an assie woman, great ob who has made a cream herself. Her name is Bromwin Hamilton's.
You can look her up.
She makes a beautiful body tummy cream for your belly.
I have some laboring position toolkits to practice or to even just start trying. So I went to a pelvic floor physio as I shared a few episodes ago, and very much felt like I failed when they said push and I was like, I don't get it. I don't understand now that I've gotten used to what that feeling is. We're trying positions to see what it's going to work for you. Yeah, and how much more space I get? So laying on my back, she was like, we can do better. When I laid on my side with my
leg up in the air. That's where I've gotten the most.
Pelfic diametter to let baby out. Yes, the biggest of pelbt DA matter. I mean, every position is going to be different. It's so interesting that the actual physio can have a look at what your body and your.
Perla starts intimate. Of course it is.
It's going to be an intimate experience when your baby comes, so you get.
Comfy with that.
But I think everyone is going to have a plan of what they want to do, and you can find out what maximizes your birth canal and things like that. When it comes down to it, it's very much going to depend on what pain relief you have. If you have an epidural, you're less mobile. If your baby's in a let's say it'll be honest, a posterior position, and lots of people going, oh, I had a posterior labor
that beans basically your baby is stargazing. So we love the idea of the spine being babies basically looking down towards your anus. Sorry ladies, but that's what we hope. We want the baby's head looking down with their spine away from yours. When the baby's spine is sitting on your spine. It's called an op labor, and it can be really uncomfortable and it's very difficult because the baby's head's a bigger diameter just purely from the anatomical size
of the head. And so they're the ones where you want to be on all fours, leaning down to try and rotate baby's spine around. But that also may be a situation where we pop a peanut ball like it's like a Swiss ball, you know, the blow up things you sit on, but it's a shape like a peanut. We stick that between your legs and we get you to roll over. So even now you have the best intentions of what you think will be best for you.
If your midwife in labour says, look, we need to move you into this position to optimize your baby and get them to roll over or move or change their position, you just listen. So you might find you're in lots of different compromising positions in birth.
Well, one of the ones that we haven't done but planning to isn't all fours to try, that's the best one. Interesting. Can I ask what positions you gave birth in?
Well, I had my first one. I was slide on my back, So that's honest, just because I was I think it was twenty one, twenty two, and that's what I thought was the right thing to do. I've had a water birth where I was sitting up on all fours the twins I was. Then I had a breach extraction for my second twins, so there was definitely an on.
My back as well.
I'm comfortable on my back though, so it's an interesting thing that it is very traditional. The whole thought of me, I felt like I was, you know, the old old wives getting you know, getting into a very traditional birth space. But for me, it worked and it was really comfortable. So I've been on all fours for one of them.
But I think you'll feel what your body likes. And what's going to be really funny is you'll love it for thirty minutes and then you'll be like I hate this, move me, and then as.
You get closer to birth, you'll be like, I can't move it all.
It's very it'll be very dependent on how you're feeling in that.
Space, So have some options in your tool kit when exactly hate suddenly hate it.
Yeah, And I think just the last little talk kit is there's a great website called Spinning Babies. So if you actually find your baby's not in a good position over the next few weeks, even now, you can start actually doing some of these exercises to try, for example, if you have a breach baby or a transverse baby, to try and get that little one to head down the birth canal in the right way.
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This episode was produced by Courtney Ammenhauser with audio production by Tom Lyon.
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