Leakage of amniotic fluid is a dangerous complication of pregnancy. A woman may not notice that the water is leaking, in some cases even a medical examination is ineffective, since leakage occurs in small doses. Violation of the integrity of the membrane of the amniotic fluid can lead to infection of the fetus, and with significant leakage - to premature birth.
The leakage of amniotic fluid can be easily confused with vaginal discharge, which during pregnancy can be abundant due to candidiasis, sometimes urine is taken for the leakage of water - the bladder, especially towards the end of pregnancy, often brings women down. If you do not have infections, including caries, you did not suffer from infectious diseases in the early stages, influenza or acute respiratory infections, monitor your health, you have a normal structure of the reproductive system, have not had operations on the cervix, there is no premature dilatation of the cervix, then the probability of water leakage is minimal.
You can recognize the leakage of amniotic fluid as follows: you need to go to the toilet, wash yourself well, thoroughly wipe the external genitals and use a small piece of light cotton cloth as a pad. If after 1, 5-2 hours the fabric gets wet, then, most likely, water really leaks.
Home diagnostic systems or test strips are more effective. Amniotic fluid has neutral acidity, while vaginal discharge can be acidic or alkaline, depending on the presence of disease. The package contains instructions. Typically, when water leaks, a certain number of stripes or an image appears. Diagnostic pads are the most affordable and fairly accurate way to determine water leakage. They are cheaper than test kits, but they work on the same principle.
A home microscope with a set of glass slides and instructions allows you to accurately determine whether water is leaking or not at home. Apply a thin layer of vaginal discharge onto a glass slide, wait for it to dry and look through a microscope. If you see fern leaves, this is a clear sign of leakage. This technique is also used by obstetricians-gynecologists as the most reliable and inexpensive, although the device is quite expensive for a home diagnostic method.
The reliability of test systems and pads is about 95%.
Women need to closely monitor the color and nature of the discharge. Vaginal discharge is usually whitish; if a woman has thrush, the discharge may be thick and yellowish. The amniotic fluid is usually clear, but can be pink, green, or brown. This color of discharge almost always indicates a rupture of the amniotic membranes. You need to lie down, call an ambulance and not make sudden movements, modern methods of preserving pregnancy allow you to convey pregnancy even in case of water leakage.
If the test for water leakage is positive, you need to call an ambulance, since you need to take the woman to the hospital as soon as possible, since rupture of the amniotic membranes can provoke childbirth, it is not recommended to go to the hospital on your own - ambulance doctors will hospitalize a woman on a stretcher or gurney.
If there is a suspicion of leakage of amniotic fluid and it is impossible to determine this by conventional methods, an instrumental examination of the amniotic bladder can be performed in the hospital.
With insignificant water leakage, a woman usually carries on pregnancy until the end of the term, if water leakage is detected at 37-38 weeks, then, depending on the degree of leakage, either they resort to labor stimulation, or maintain pregnancy until the onset of natural childbirth. If the membranes rupture in the early stages, the risk of septic damage to the fetus is high, therefore, pregnancy is almost always interrupted for medical reasons.
