Speaker 1: You're listening to a Muma Mia podcast. Mom and Maya
Speaker 1: acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this
Speaker 1: podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 2: I am pregnanty.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Hello Bump. We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and
Speaker 1: more manageable, hopefully. I'm Grace Reubray. I'm pregnant for the
Speaker 1: first time and I thought I needed to wee a
Speaker 1: lot before, but now I'm need to we a lot.
Speaker 2: We should talk about that though, and case you've got
Speaker 2: a urine retract infection. But let's get there down there
Speaker 2: a few minutes. Agoy. My Name'siana Pittman. I'm a former
Speaker 2: Olympian for Australia. I'm a mother of six beautiful kiddies,
Speaker 2: and I'm training to be an Obstritrician.
Speaker 1: Each week, Yanner and I will be holding your hand,
Speaker 1: week by week through the mysterious, perplexing and sometimes very
Speaker 1: urgent and desperate miracle that is pregnancy, all the way
Speaker 1: from a poppy seed to a pumpkin. Oh week third
Speaker 1: and what what size is our baby? Too?
Speaker 2: Sliced toaster is what Google told me today. I don't
Speaker 2: know if I like that though. It's about in the
Speaker 2: oven so you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a theme there to leave there. I've got
Speaker 1: a baby otter. I love way they play.
Speaker 2: With their own babies as well at the zoo is
Speaker 2: one of my favorite animals to watch. I have a
Speaker 2: short nose, a kidnap.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: I don't even know if there's a big nose or
Speaker 2: a long nose and a.
Speaker 1: Short like an ant eater AQ. Maybe I don't know
Speaker 1: neither do I that's not our specialty.
Speaker 2: I'm moving along. Baby is now weighing between one point
Speaker 2: five and one point six kilos on average. Remember guys,
Speaker 2: it's just an average, and it's about forty one centimeters long.
Speaker 2: Like that's getting it's all wrapped up inside you there,
Speaker 2: it's getting long.
Speaker 1: When you look down at your belly, you go how
Speaker 1: and where.
Speaker 2: Exactly because it's hide up inside or snuggling safe and
Speaker 2: how are they developing? So this week I think what's
Speaker 2: really sweet is they're starting to hear a lot more
Speaker 2: outside of the womb. So you know, we've obviously been
Speaker 2: playing music or talking about what sort of soundtracks you
Speaker 2: want for your birth, but it's time they can start
Speaker 2: really connecting with you. So if you do have a partner,
Speaker 2: it's a lovely time to start engaging them and getting
Speaker 2: them to talk to the baby. Their eyes are starting
Speaker 2: to open now and they can certainly see the dark
Speaker 2: between dark and night and things like that, so it's
Speaker 2: quite a special time. And their lungs are starting to
Speaker 2: develop pretty well now as well. So we're almost moving
Speaker 2: past till a couple of weeks, moving past the point
Speaker 2: where you'd need steroids if you went into labor.
Speaker 1: What's happening to me and what's happening to us?
Speaker 2: Many women now find I get a lot more emotional
Speaker 2: in the third trimester, so because the reality of life
Speaker 2: and what's happening and the big changes are certainly coming close.
Speaker 2: So they're feeling less comfortable in their body. They're waddling
Speaker 2: a bit more. The swelling is starting to happen. We
Speaker 2: kind of talked about this at the beginning, but the
Speaker 2: urine refrequency means how many times you pee is becoming urgent.
Speaker 1: So I have questions on this is Sometimes the needing
Speaker 1: to wei is just it feels like pressure. It doesn't
Speaker 1: feel like if you've been locked in a car trip
Speaker 1: and you go, oh my god, we need to pull
Speaker 1: over to wee. It's not that it's this it's a
Speaker 1: different pressure feeling. And then other times I can just
Speaker 1: be sitting at my desk and it is that feeling
Speaker 1: of needing to we of like, I don't know if
Speaker 1: she's just rolled and hit Yeah she hit the bladder
Speaker 1: or something like that, but it's they're two very distinct
Speaker 1: different things. But I need to use the bathroom. That's right.
Speaker 2: I mean you've got to remember that the blood, it's
Speaker 2: right in front of the uterus and it's now big
Speaker 2: and expanding, and that baby is literally sitting on your blood,
Speaker 2: which I'm sure you've heard your your grammars and your
Speaker 2: friends say.
Speaker 1: Oh's sitting all my blood. I've got to go to
Speaker 1: the toilet, so it's real.
Speaker 2: You know, your bladder is squashed, therefore it has a
Speaker 2: smaller capacity to hold urine. You've got an increased dilation
Speaker 2: of the kidneys, so the actual vessels that feed through,
Speaker 2: so you're having more increased GFI. So basically that just
Speaker 2: means how quickly your kidneys filter urine, and so you
Speaker 2: do pee a lot. We're trying to get rid of
Speaker 2: things you don't need. Sol it's trying to detox your
Speaker 2: body in certain ways. Along with your liver, and so
Speaker 2: it's important that that happens now. I think the thing
Speaker 2: to consider though, is that changes in your urinary system
Speaker 2: also does predispose you to urine retract infections. So I
Speaker 2: think it's a nice time now to just say, if
Speaker 2: your urine is coming more frequently, it smells a little bit,
Speaker 2: there's a bit of stinging and burning, it's time to
Speaker 2: actually distill a sample for your doctor and check that
Speaker 2: there's nothing growing in that urine. Now, why is that important?
Speaker 2: Couple of things. Firstly, no one wants a urin attract infection.
Speaker 1: It hurts.
Speaker 2: There's a chance it could go actually up into the
Speaker 2: kidneys called pilonephritis, and that's a really serious condition impregnant.
Speaker 2: We also know that any infection in the vagina or
Speaker 2: in the in the bladder can actually stimulate labor a
Speaker 2: little bit early. So we don't want to have an
Speaker 2: irritated bladder because we don't want the uterus to become irritated.
Speaker 2: So we call it ushrine irritability. When you have that,
Speaker 2: what we call threatened pre term labor, where you just
Speaker 2: get irritated, and.
Speaker 1: Often it's just an infection. If we treat it, it goes away.
Speaker 2: The scary thing is we have what's called asymptomatic back
Speaker 2: to EU, which basically means we have bacteria in our
Speaker 2: urine that sometimes doesn't even cause symptoms. So around this
Speaker 2: time you might even find that your midwife, if you
Speaker 2: have any increased frequency, might just get your pee in
Speaker 2: a cup. If it's normal, great, If it's not better
Speaker 2: to have some antibiotics now than later in the pregnancy.
Speaker 1: So you can just request that next appointment to say,
Speaker 1: can I also do a urine.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and certainly if you've had urine attracted infections in
Speaker 2: the past so you'll be prone to it, it's definitely
Speaker 2: worth doing because we know our immune system is a
Speaker 2: little less good at fighting enduring pregnancy, so therefore we
Speaker 2: need to make sure that something's not growing. If you
Speaker 2: have diabetes again, you're even higher higher risk unfortunately, of
Speaker 2: getting infections, particularly of a urinary nature.
Speaker 1: Is this normal?
Speaker 2: Is normal?
Speaker 1: Is this normal is around Braxton Hicks? Yes? So the
Speaker 1: only reference I have a Braxton Hicks is from an
Speaker 1: episode in Friends, Okay, go, where are we through that?
Speaker 1: When Rachel has them and like Ross is like, oh,
Speaker 1: most women don't even feel those? Is everything Okay, your
Speaker 1: preacher had come to the hospital.
Speaker 2: What was it? What happened?
Speaker 1: But it's something called Braxton Hicks contraction.
Speaker 2: Oh god, that's a big deal. Most women don't even
Speaker 2: feel them.
Speaker 1: Okay, no uterus, no opinion. That is my only And
Speaker 1: but I knew that it meant you're close to labor.
Speaker 1: That was sort of the only thing I kind of knew.
Speaker 1: And when I was having an appointment with my midwife,
Speaker 1: she was doing measuring me or feeling where the baby was,
Speaker 1: and she had her hands on me and she goes, oh,
Speaker 1: you're having a Braxton hick. Did you feel that? And
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, that, I kind of feel that.
Speaker 1: All the time. I had no idea what it was.
Speaker 1: I just thought, well, actually I just thought it was
Speaker 1: like slow moving boughs or cramps.
Speaker 2: And look, it could be that too, because that is
Speaker 2: definitely something that can that can mimic a Braxton hick. Now,
Speaker 2: I think the hard part about this is determining to
Speaker 2: split it into is it just a Braxton Hicks contraction?
Speaker 2: And we'll talk about the best ways to sort of
Speaker 2: determine that versus am I in preterm labor? Because again,
Speaker 2: between thirty and thirty four weeks. We don't want you
Speaker 2: laboring at home. Bobby still needs ane and natal support
Speaker 2: if they were to come out, and the steroids and
Speaker 2: things like that. So the thing is to sit down
Speaker 2: and watch what those contractions do. Now, if you get
Speaker 2: distracted and you walk around the house and they go away,
Speaker 2: they're Braxton Hicks. If you drink some water and go
Speaker 2: to sleep and they're gone in the morning, they're Braxton Hicks.
Speaker 2: If they're regular and they're tight and you can't talk
Speaker 2: through them. Even if they are braxton Hicks, you need
Speaker 2: to come and see us to make sure that they're
Speaker 2: nothing that's progressing, because it does happen. You know, we
Speaker 2: do have women that go into preterm labor, and one
Speaker 2: of the starting symptoms is back pain like a period,
Speaker 2: cramping in the vagina, and those tightenings. A lot of
Speaker 2: midwives will say, brax and Hicks start every around the
Speaker 2: back of your sides, are a little bit in your back.
Speaker 2: True contractions are the entire uterus, but I have certainly
Speaker 2: seen what we call some silent labor where there's those
Speaker 2: Braxton Hicks contractions that do eventually turn into labor. So
Speaker 2: it's important to just get the checked, and.
Speaker 1: What would you if you're having them, what's the next
Speaker 1: step that makes you go, oh, I should be getting
Speaker 1: that tech if it's they become regular or it is
Speaker 1: painful rather than uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, and they don't go away with a position change,
Speaker 2: having a drink, having something to be walking around.
Speaker 1: We spoke about when you should got a maternity leave.
Speaker 1: I get them more when I'm at work.
Speaker 2: Of course, you're busy and you're moving around in the list.
Speaker 2: Abdominal muscles are stretching, and you're pulling all those tendons
Speaker 2: like another thing we often do. So if you came
Speaker 2: to the berth unit to see me, because it's often
Speaker 2: me these days on the birth unit that you'll come
Speaker 2: and say hello to, we would often give you some panadole. Initially,
Speaker 2: we'd pop the CTG monitor on and see if we
Speaker 2: can see any of that uterine activity, and we'd feel
Speaker 2: your tummy. So if you feel your tummy and your
Speaker 2: tummy is rock hard and it's forty five seconds long
Speaker 2: and they're coming every couple of minutes, it doesn't matter
Speaker 2: if they go away, it's still better to come in
Speaker 2: and get an assessment. What will that mean A speculum. Sorry, ladies,
Speaker 2: but it does mean we'll have a look at your service.
Speaker 2: If your servix is open, those braxtons are real. If
Speaker 2: your servants is long, long and closed, we're less concerned.
Speaker 2: And I think this sort of comes back into the
Speaker 2: urine as well. At this point you might find you
Speaker 2: yourself a little bit, so that can sometimes be your waters.
Speaker 2: So we get a lot of women coming in around
Speaker 2: this time and in pregnancy saying I think I've broken
Speaker 2: my waters and it's just that they're having a bit
Speaker 2: of an accident from the urine. Very normal, and I
Speaker 2: much prefer it to be UI than you're amniotic fly.
Speaker 1: I actually called about that. It's like slightly gross, but
Speaker 1: I feel like it should be shared. Is that I
Speaker 1: was noticing I didn't look like discharge, but I didn't
Speaker 1: know if it was we But then I didn't know
Speaker 1: how much was amniotic fluid. Yeah, but it was definitely
Speaker 1: just more wet down there. And their advice was to
Speaker 1: put on a pad, yes exactly, and then wait either
Speaker 1: overnight or wait a few hours, and if it's like
Speaker 1: if it's amniotic fluid, it'll keep coming, it'll keep com backtly.
Speaker 2: Most of the time, see, we've got these constantly at
Speaker 2: the moment, most of the time the leaking will keep happening. Now,
Speaker 2: the caveat to that is that sometimes you get what's
Speaker 2: called a hind Bader leak, and therefore you get a
Speaker 2: bit of a leak and it doesn't go But that
Speaker 2: tends to happen on repeat. You know, you have it
Speaker 2: one day and you'll have it a few more days later.
Speaker 2: You can come to the berth unit if you are concerned,
Speaker 2: and we do these special tests. They're called an act
Speaker 2: and prom or a test that particularly looks at the
Speaker 2: proteins in the amniotic fluid and can differentiate it from
Speaker 2: urine versus your amniotic fluid. And why is it important? Guys? Oh, well,
Speaker 2: I'm only thirty two weeks as long as I'm not contracting,
Speaker 2: Why does it matter if I'm leaking, Because that amniotic
Speaker 2: fluid is basically what keeps your baby sterile and away
Speaker 2: from the outside environment. So if your waters break, we
Speaker 2: need to consider giving you antibiotics and making sure that
Speaker 2: again there's no reason why your waters are broken, because
Speaker 2: you know, there's a high chance in the first forty
Speaker 2: eight hours after your water's broke that your baby's going
Speaker 2: to come, so it's just better if you're concerned to
Speaker 2: have it checked. So I think on our tool kick
Speaker 2: this week is to make sure that you have something
Speaker 2: nice to rub into your belly because you're belly, you're
Speaker 2: starting to definitely grow and your clothes are changing, so
Speaker 2: you know, so you got your biooils or your coconut oil.
Speaker 2: And there's an amazing obstution actually down in Melbourne as
Speaker 2: she's an assie woman, great ob who has made a
Speaker 2: cream herself. Her name is Bromwin Hamilton's.
Speaker 1: You can look her up.
Speaker 2: She makes a beautiful body tummy cream for your belly.
Speaker 1: I have some laboring position toolkits to practice or to
Speaker 1: even just start trying. So I went to a pelvic
Speaker 1: floor physio as I shared a few episodes ago, and
Speaker 1: very much felt like I failed when they said push
Speaker 1: and I was like, I don't get it. I don't
Speaker 1: understand now that I've gotten used to what that feeling is.
Speaker 1: We're trying positions to see what it's going to work
Speaker 1: for you. Yeah, and how much more space I get?
Speaker 1: So laying on my back, she was like, we can
Speaker 1: do better. When I laid on my side with my
Speaker 1: leg up in the air. That's where I've gotten the most.
Speaker 2: Pelfic diametter to let baby out. Yes, the biggest of
Speaker 2: pelbt DA matter. I mean, every position is going to
Speaker 2: be different. It's so interesting that the actual physio can
Speaker 2: have a look at what your body and your.
Speaker 1: Perla starts intimate. Of course it is.
Speaker 2: It's going to be an intimate experience when your baby comes,
Speaker 2: so you get.
Speaker 1: Comfy with that.
Speaker 2: But I think everyone is going to have a plan
Speaker 2: of what they want to do, and you can find
Speaker 2: out what maximizes your birth canal and things like that.
Speaker 2: When it comes down to it, it's very much going
Speaker 2: to depend on what pain relief you have. If you
Speaker 2: have an epidural, you're less mobile. If your baby's in
Speaker 2: a let's say it'll be honest, a posterior position, and
Speaker 2: lots of people going, oh, I had a posterior labor
Speaker 2: that beans basically your baby is stargazing. So we love
Speaker 2: the idea of the spine being babies basically looking down
Speaker 2: towards your anus. Sorry ladies, but that's what we hope.
Speaker 2: We want the baby's head looking down with their spine
Speaker 2: away from yours. When the baby's spine is sitting on
Speaker 2: your spine. It's called an op labor, and it can
Speaker 2: be really uncomfortable and it's very difficult because the baby's
Speaker 2: head's a bigger diameter just purely from the anatomical size
Speaker 2: of the head. And so they're the ones where you
Speaker 2: want to be on all fours, leaning down to try
Speaker 2: and rotate baby's spine around. But that also may be
Speaker 2: a situation where we pop a peanut ball like it's
Speaker 2: like a Swiss ball, you know, the blow up things
Speaker 2: you sit on, but it's a shape like a peanut.
Speaker 2: We stick that between your legs and we get you
Speaker 2: to roll over. So even now you have the best
Speaker 2: intentions of what you think will be best for you.
Speaker 2: If your midwife in labour says, look, we need to
Speaker 2: move you into this position to optimize your baby and
Speaker 2: get them to roll over or move or change their position,
Speaker 2: you just listen. So you might find you're in lots
Speaker 2: of different compromising positions in birth.
Speaker 1: Well, one of the ones that we haven't done but
Speaker 1: planning to isn't all fours to try, that's the best one. Interesting.
Speaker 1: Can I ask what positions you gave birth in?
Speaker 2: Well, I had my first one. I was slide on
Speaker 2: my back, So that's honest, just because I was I
Speaker 2: think it was twenty one, twenty two, and that's what
Speaker 2: I thought was the right thing to do. I've had
Speaker 2: a water birth where I was sitting up on all
Speaker 2: fours the twins I was. Then I had a breach
Speaker 2: extraction for my second twins, so there was definitely an on.
Speaker 1: My back as well.
Speaker 2: I'm comfortable on my back though, so it's an interesting
Speaker 2: thing that it is very traditional. The whole thought of me,
Speaker 2: I felt like I was, you know, the old old
Speaker 2: wives getting you know, getting into a very traditional birth space.
Speaker 2: But for me, it worked and it was really comfortable.
Speaker 2: So I've been on all fours for one of them.
Speaker 2: But I think you'll feel what your body likes. And
Speaker 2: what's going to be really funny is you'll love it
Speaker 2: for thirty minutes and then you'll be like I hate this,
Speaker 2: move me, and then as.
Speaker 1: You get closer to birth, you'll be like, I can't
Speaker 1: move it all.
Speaker 2: It's very it'll be very dependent on how you're feeling
Speaker 2: in that.
Speaker 1: Space, So have some options in your tool kit when
Speaker 1: exactly hate suddenly hate it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think just the last little talk kit
Speaker 2: is there's a great website called Spinning Babies. So if
Speaker 2: you actually find your baby's not in a good position
Speaker 2: over the next few weeks, even now, you can start
Speaker 2: actually doing some of these exercises to try, for example,
Speaker 2: if you have a breach baby or a transverse baby,
Speaker 2: to try and get that little one to head down
Speaker 2: the birth canal in the right way.
Speaker 1: Okay, we hope you enjoyed this episode of Hello bumb.
Speaker 1: We have so many episodes of this series filled with
Speaker 1: tips and stories from women and experts who've been through
Speaker 1: it all before.
Speaker 2: You can go back and listen to everything else Hello
Speaker 2: Bump related in this podcast.
Speaker 1: Fee and while you're there, we'd love if you could
Speaker 1: give us a flying star rating and maybe leave us
Speaker 1: a review or even share this episode with a friend.
Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Courtney Ammenhauser with audio production
Speaker 2: by Tom Lyon.
Speaker 1: We'll catch you next time. This episode of Hello Bump
Speaker 1: was made in partnership with Huggies Bye Bye.