Frequent Urination In Pregnancy
Increased Urination In Pregnancy Explained By A Midwife
Ever wondered why you pee more often in pregnancy? Our Resident Midwife, Christie explains it all.
Increased urination is a symptom of pregnancy
This is a symptom of pregnancy that we are all very aware of, probably because pregnant friends, relatives and even strangers seem like they are constantly on the loo! It can be frustrating needing to always gravitate around a toilet, locate them as soon as you go out anywhere ‘just in-case’ and frequently need to get up in the night, even from as early as seeing that positive test.
An increased need to wee during pregnancy is a normal and common symptom, that many women will experience at some point throughout their pregnancy. The reason you may have the urge to go more varies throughout the 3 trimesters.
Is peeing more during pregnancy normal?
In terms of how often is normal – that varies a lot from person to person, and there’s no set number, but it’s important not to try and hold it and just go as much as you feel you need to. Frequent urination can start as early as 4 weeks and is very common in the first trimester. Your body is amazing and doing a whole lot of stuff to support your growing baby.
Firstly, the hormone HCG sends a signal to your brain to increase the blood volume in your body. The way you do this is by drinking more (so expect to feel thirsty too). Then, once you have the fluid in your system your body works on overdrive to turn water into new blood, about 500ml initially, which is why increased thirst can be very noticeable in the first trimester.
The reason for this is that you need to make a whole new circulatory system, for another human. You need to make a heart, veins, arteries and capillaries and create enough blood to fill these. Once your baby’s circulatory system is up and running (about 3 weeks after conception) this extra blood will travel through their tiny bodies to start making and oxygenating new organs.
So why does making more blood, mean more wee? Seems like it’d be the opposite right? Like you need to hold onto that fluid? Well, the extra blood needs to be filtered. The bad stuff (any toxins and unnecessary nutrients) need to be disposed of.
Your kidneys filter your blood, remove any waste and then this is passed out of your body as urine. So, if your blood volume is increased, the amount of blood your kidneys need to filter is increased, therefore the amount you need to wee is increased.
As your baby grows, they will need enough blood to keep their heart beating and circulatory system functioning (which are also increasing in size). Overall, you are likely to gain an extra 1.2 – 1.6 Litres of blood by the end of pregnancy (which is about a 45% increase in overall blood volume). This blood runs through your own body, providing you with all the nutrients you need to stay healthy and through baby’s body as well, giving them all the nutrients, they need to grow and be healthy too. Your body then needs to excrete the waste from both of you, so you are literally weeing for 2!! This means weeing nearly 50% more than you were before.
When does increased urination during pregnancy stop?
You may notice a slight period of relief from increased urinary frequency towards the end of the 2nd trimester when your baby’s organs are mostly developed and they aren’t yet big enough to be pushing heavily on your bladder. But as soon as baby’s weight starts to increase and they start taking up more internal space your bladder can become compressed (not with all people, so don’t worry if you aren’t experiencing an increased need to wee, but with most). A squashed bladder and increased volume of wee can only really have one outcome – weeing out smaller volumes, more regularly!
Once you consider all that is going on internally and how unbelievably clever your body is and how hard it’s working to keep you healthy and grow baby, I guess that 10th toilet trip doesn’t seem quite so bad.
UTI’s & Pregnancy
One thing to bear in mind though is that urine infections (often referred to as UTI’s – urinary, tract infections) are much more common in pregnancy and need to be treated with antibiotics. The urge to urinate frequently, often going with nothing coming out, or feeling like you need to go again when you have just been can be a sign of a UTI, along with discomfort when peeing, lower tummy pain, feeling as though you are unable to empty your bladder, cloudy or smelly wee, feeling tired and unwell – if you are experiencing any of these symptoms please contact your GP.
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