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Am I incontinent or have my waters broken?

by Christine Hill

question
I am 33 weeks pregnant and I am suffering badly from incontinence. Not just the odd little spurt that I was warned about, but more like my waters breaking on a regular basis.

I went to my doctor who simply told me that these things happen and gave me some incontinence pads, but it's just making me so miserable. I have to sleep in an upright position to prevent Niagara Falls every time I stand up.

Is there anything I can do to relieve this? I have been doing my pelvic floor exercises for months but that's not helping me now.

answer

This is a matter of some urgency. From what you describe, it sounds as though your waters have gone rather than stress incontinence.

Would you please go to a hospital as soon as possible, where they will be able to test whether you are losing urine or amniotic fluid.

Go even if your GP did this test when you saw him, as it can sometimes show a false negative. If the hospital is quite sure it is urine you are losing, please feel free to get back to me and I can make some suggestions.

Feedback

I just wanted to say thanks for the email you sent me in response to my questions about my incontinence problem, in which you told me to go back to the hospital as you thought my waters might have broken.

Well, as things didn't get any better I did that, and although at first they diagnosed me as having a kidney infection, they soon realised I was indeed in labour.

My waters had broken and last Friday I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She is six weeks early and in special care, but she is doing really well. If it hadn't been for your help, I wouldn't have gone to the hospital, and things could've gone very badly wrong.

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