• Contact us
• About us
• A-Z topics
• Symptom Checker
• Service Finder
• Linking to us
• Information partners
• Terms of use
• Privacy

Pregnancy, Birth and Baby is funded by the Australian Government and operated by Healthdirect Australia.

Pregnancy, Birth and Baby is provided on behalf of the Department of Health

Pregnancy, Birth and Baby’s information and advice are developed and managed within a rigorous clinical governance framework. This website is certified by the Health On The Net (HON) foundation, the standard for trustworthy health information.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

This information is for your general information and use only and is not intended to be used as medical advice and should not be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any medical condition, nor should it be used for therapeutic purposes.

The information is not a substitute for independent professional advice and should not be used as an alternative to professional health care. If you have a particular medical problem, please consult a healthcare professional.

Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, this publication or any part of it may not be reproduced, altered, adapted, stored and/or distributed in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of Healthdirect Australia.

Support this browser is being discontinued for Pregnancy, Birth and Baby

Support for this browser is being discontinued for this site

• Internet Explorer 11 and lower

We currently support Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. For more information, please visit the links below:

• Chrome by Google
• Firefox by Mozilla
• Microsoft Edge
• Safari by Apple

You are welcome to continue browsing this site with this browser. Some features, tools or interaction may not work correctly.

Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) During Pregnancy

Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors

Medically Reviewed by Nivin Todd, MD on September 04, 2022

In this Article

• UTI Symptoms
• Why Are UTIs More Common During Pregnancy?
• UTI Diagnosis
• UTI Treatment During Pregnancy
• UTI Complications During Pregnancy
• UTI Prevention

A urinary tract infection (UTI) is an infection of some part of your body's urinary system, which includes your:

• Kidneys
• Ureters (tubes that carries urine from your kidneys to your bladder)
• Bladder
• Urethra (a short tube that carries urine from your bladder to outside your body)

Bacteria cause most UTIs. Anyone can get one, but they're most common in women, and they can be extra concerning if you're pregnant.

If you think you might have a UTI, tell your doctor. With proper care, you and your baby should be fine.

Usually, these infections are in the bladder and urethra. But sometimes they can lead to kidney infections. If they do, UTIs may lead to preterm labor (giving birth too early) and low birth weight.

UTI Symptoms

If you have a UTI, you may have:

• An urgent need to pee, or peeing more often
• Trouble with peeing
• A burning sensation or cramps in your lower back or lower belly
• A burning feeling when you pee
• Urine that looks cloudy or has an odor
• Blood in your pee, which can turn it red, bright pink, or cola-colored

If you have a kidney infection, you may have:

• Fever
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Upper back pain, often on just one side

If you have symptoms of a kidney infection, see your doctor right away. Without treatment, the infection can spread into your bloodstream and cause life-threatening conditions.

Why Are UTIs More Common During Pregnancy?

Hormones are one reason. In pregnancy, they cause changes in the urinary tract, and that makes women more likely to get infections. Changes in hormones can also lead to vesicoureteral reflux, a condition in which your pee flows back up from your bladder to your kidneys. This can cause UTIs.

When you’re pregnant, your pee has more sugar, protein, and hormones in it. These changes also put you at higher risk for a UTI.

Because you’re pregnant, your growing uterus presses on your bladder. That makes it hard for you to let out all the urine in your bladder. Leftover urine can be a source of infection.

Other causes of UTIs include:

Escherichia coli and other bacteria from your poop. E. Coli is the most common cause of UTIs and can move from your rectum to your urethra if you don’t wipe from front to back.

Sexual activity. Fingers, your partner’s penis, or devices can move bacteria near your vagina into your urethra.

Group B streptococcus. Many women have this bacteria in their colon and vagina. It can cause UTIs and women can pass it to their newborns. Your doctor will test you for this bacteria around weeks 36 to 37 of pregnancy. If you’re positive for group B strep, your doctor will give you IV antibiotics during labor.

UTI Diagnosis

You’ll take a urine test. Your doctor will test it for bacteria and red and white blood cells. A urine culture may also be checked. It shows what kind of bacteria are in the urine.

UTI Treatment During Pregnancy

You’ll take antibiotics for 3 to 7 days or as your doctor recommends. If your infection makes you feel uncomfortable, your doctor will probably start your treatment before you get your urine test results.

Your symptoms should go away in 3 days. Take all of your medication on schedule anyway. Don’t stop it early, even if your symptoms fade.

Many common antibiotics -- amoxicillin, erythromycin, and penicillin, for example -- are considered safe for pregnant women. Your doctor wouldn’t prescribe others, such as ciprofloxacin (Cipro), sulfamethoxazole, tetracycline, or trimethoprim (Primsol, Proloprim, Trimpex), that can affect your baby’s development.

UTI Complications During Pregnancy

Pyelonephritis is a UTI that affects the kidneys. If you’re pregnant it can cause:

• Preterm labor
• Severe infection
• Adult respiratory distress syndrome
• Anemia
• Long-term infection

UTI Prevention

To try to avoid getting a UTI:

• Drink at least eight glasses of water a day.
• Wipe yourself from front to back when you go to the bathroom.
• Empty your bladder shortly before and after sex.
• If you need a lubricant when you have sex, choose a water-based one.
• Don't douche.
• Avoid strong feminine deodorants or soaps that cause irritation.
• Wash your genital area with warm water before sex.
• Wear cotton underwear.
• Take showers instead of baths.
• Don’t wear pants that are too tight.
• Pee often.
• Avoid alcohol, citrus juices, spicy food, and caffeinated drinks, which can irritate your bladder.

Women's Health Guide

1. Screening & Tests
2. Diet & Exercise
3. Rest & Relaxation
4. Reproductive Health
5. Head to Toe

450106, Ufa, st. Art. Kuvykina, 96. e-mail: [email protected]

Good afternoon, dear friends! Today we will talk about cardiovascular diseases in women during pregnancy. Despite the fact that pregnancy is a completely natural state of a woman, at this time her health is especially vulnerable, as the body works to create and form a new life. For nine months of waiting, the expectant mother may face various problems, one of which is arrhythmia.

The risk of developing arrhythmias can be quite high. Indeed, with serious violations of the heart rhythm, problems with the health of the mother and fetus can occur. Not all arrhythmias observed in pregnant women are associated with heart disease. They can also be observed in conditions whose causes are the influence of external factors on the nervous system.

These include:

• severe physical and emotional stress,

• unhealthy diet,

• bad habits,

• diseases of the respiratory tract,

• diseases of the central nervous system;

​• problems with the gastrointestinal tract;

• disturbances in electrolyte metabolism;

• diseases associated with heredity;

• problems with the endocrine system.

Some types of arrhythmias also occur in apparently healthy women. Not all arrhythmias, especially in pregnant women, should be treated medically, especially surgically. In some cases, it is necessary to treat the underlying disease, such as anemia, which causes heart rhythm disturbances.

Arrhythmia can occur in absolutely any pregnant woman, but there are such risk factors that significantly increase the possibility of developing the disease. First of all, it is a hereditary predisposition.

In women with a history of congenital and acquired heart defects, especially with decompensation of the disease during pregnancy, the risk of rhythm disturbances, including life-threatening ones, is quite high.

Very often, rhythm disturbances appear at long gestational ages. After all, along with the growth of the child, the load on the heart gradually increases due to an increase in blood volume in the body. The heart is forced to work with a greater load, which leads to various functional disorders, including arrhythmias.

​ Heart rhythm disorders can be associated with various hormonal changes and changes in the activity of the autonomic nervous system.

During pregnancy, cardiac arrhythmias are possible by the type of slowing of the heart rate (bradycardia), which in most cases are congenital and asymptomatic. The first manifestation of such a condition can lead to loss of consciousness and is an indication for the implantation of an artificial pacemaker. Each case is individual, therefore, the issue of treatment and methods of its implementation is decided by the observing doctor - gynecologist, taking into account the recommendations of the cardiologist (arrhythmologist) and the therapist.

Sinus tachycardia is very common in pregnant women, when the heart rate reaches one hundred or more beats per minute. In most cases, it is non-cardiac in nature and does not require active antiarrhythmic therapy. One of the most common forms of arrhythmia is extrasystole. This form of rhythm disturbance during pregnancy most often does not cause much discomfort and only sometimes manifests itself in the form of a feeling of heart rhythm failure or discomfort in the chest. Although such symptoms frighten the pregnant woman, they do not require special medical treatment and do not lead to the need to refuse natural childbirth. Specific drugs are prescribed by a specialist only after a comprehensive examination and if there is a risk of ventricular tachycardia.

We must remember that self-treatment harms health, first of all, the health of the unborn child. Therefore, specialist advice is required.

​The reason for special therapy is the presence of atrial fibrillation or palpitations, which can cause hypoxia in the child and even lead to miscarriage. traumatic factor that caused its appearance (alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, emotional and physical overwork). When this is not enough, medications are prescribed, but when prescribing drugs, the gynecologist, first of all, evaluates the appropriateness of prescribing them in terms of future benefits and possible harm to the child.

​If you do not want to be a hostage to arrhythmia during pregnancy, the best way to prevent the disease is to have a timely examination and thorough preparation of the family for planning a child. It is before conception that a woman can take a course of treatment without fear for the life and health of the unborn baby.

To protect a woman from possible complications during childbearing, the doctor must diagnose possible diseases of the cardiovascular system, lungs, bronchi, thyroid gland and other abnormalities of the body that can provoke heart rhythm disturbances even before pregnancy. Every pregnant woman who is suspected of having a heart rhythm disorder can get qualified advice at the Republican Cardiology Center. Do not forget that a healthy lifestyle and movement are the key to a cheerful mood and excellent health. Practice exercises in the morning and take more walks in the fresh air, then you will certainly notice that arrhythmia worries you less!

Article "Pregnancy and heartburn"

Hormonal changes that the body undergoes during pregnancy is the root cause of heartburn. In early pregnancy, the ovaries, and then the placenta, produce the hormone progesterone, one of the main functions of which is to relax the smooth muscles of the body, including the muscles of the uterus. Similarly, progesterone acts on other smooth muscles in our body, for example, the muscles of the esophagus, stomach, and intestines. Progesterone also has a relaxing effect on the sphincters (circular muscles), the main task of which is to separate the various organs of the gastrointestinal system from each other. Relaxation of the esophageal-gastric sphincter leads to the fact that in pregnant women its lumen is open, and hydrochloric acid, which is produced by the stomach, can be thrown into the esophagus, which causes an unpleasant sensation of pain and burning - heartburn.

Another cause of heartburn in pregnant women is the weakening of motility - the wave-like movement of the gastrointestinal tract, slowing down the processes of digestion. Food passes through the digestive tract more slowly, lingering in the stomach. Heartburn in pregnant women is also provoked by the large size of the uterus, which increases intra-abdominal pressure and increases pressure on all the internal organs of the pregnant woman - the stomach and intestines as well. The stomach changes its location during pregnancy, pushed up and to the side by the uterus - all these factors also contribute to the violation of the motility of the esophagus, stomach and intestines and create conditions for the occurrence of heartburn.

Heartburn can start at any stage of pregnancy, but is most common in the second and third trimesters. As a rule, discomfort occurs after 24 weeks, when the uterus rises above the navel, and becomes especially severe after 30 weeks. Especially intense heartburn can be in a woman if she had an increased acidity of gastric juice before pregnancy.

To avoid heartburn during pregnancy, first of all, you need to review your menu and exclude fatty, fried, spicy, salty foods from it, you must give up coffee and carbonated drinks. Include cereals, dairy products, lean meats and mashed vegetables in the diet. It is advisable to eat often and in small portions every 1.5-2 hours. Spend more time eating, remember to chew food thoroughly so that it is digested properly. Drink water between meals, not with meals. After a meal, it is not recommended to sit or lie down, but take a walk for some time (about 30-40 minutes). Try to avoid sharp torso bending after eating. Do not eat at night, the last meal is desirable 2-3 hours before going to bed. Remember to put an extra pillow under your head, sometimes this helps to cope with heartburn. And if heartburn still appears, you need to try to reduce it.

At the first signs of heartburn, you can drink a small amount of alkaline mineral water without gas or take a few sips of low-fat milk. Drink should be in small sips. Kissels work well. They envelop the esophagus and thus reduce burning sensation. The safest in the treatment of heartburn in pregnant women are antacids containing sodium bicarbonate, calcium carbonate, preparations containing magnesium and other substances. Antacids neutralize gastric acid, are not absorbed into the bloodstream and cannot affect the developing fetus. Caution should be taken only to antacids that contain aluminum - because of the theoretical risk of absorption of aluminum ions into the body of a pregnant woman and their penetration into the tissues of the fetus.

Learn more

• 
  How to perform heimlich maneuver on a child
• 
  How are triplets formed
• 
  How to get child support off your credit
• 
  Shoulder dysplasia during birth
• 
  Surrogate spouse syndrome
• 
  Herbal teas for morning sickness
• 
  How much does it cost to raise a child in nyc
• 
  How does baby borns
• 
  Bleeding lightly while pregnant
• 
  Nipt cost without insurance
• 
  Extreme fatigue in third trimester