Urine tests provide your doctor or midwife with important information about illness or conditions that could possibly affect you or your growing baby. That’s why at each prenatal visit, you’ll be asked to give a urine sample as part of your routine test.
Will My Practitioner Ask Me for a Urine Sample at Each Prenatal Check Out?
Practices vary a lot from office to workplace. Your professional will likely ask you for a urine sample at your first prenatal check out and send it to a laboratory for a total urinalysis. Some professionals will continue to request a urine sample at each see (or once a trimester) and they will usually test it by dipstick right in the office. Others will not request for a sample again unless you’re having symptoms that would warrant a urine test. Some will offer you particular instructions for how to produce a “clean-catch midstream specimen,” while others will simply ask you to pee a bit into a cup.
How Do I Produce a “Clean-catch Midstream Specimen”?
You’re offered a specimen cup and an antiseptic wipe and sent to the toilet to produce a urine sample. First, wash your hands. Then, with tidy fingers, separate your labia and clean your vulva from front to back with the wipe.
Urinate for a few seconds into the toilet then slip the cup under the stream till you collect enough for the sample. (Avoid touching the inside of the cup with your fingers.) Then end up urinating into the toilet. Put the cap on the cup and deliver it to the medical assistant.
How Is the Dipstick Testing Done?
A medical assistant checks your urine by dipping a colored test stick in it and comparing the results to a chart. The results are composed on your medical chart for your midwife or doctor to review.
What Is My Urine during Pregnancy Tested for?
Urine Test for Sugar
It’s typical to sometimes have a percentage of sugar in your urine during pregnancy, but if you have elevated levels at a few prenatal sees in a row or a very high level at one go to, it might imply you have gestational diabetes. Your specialist might have you take a glucose difficulty test to find out whether that’s the case. (Even if your urine test results are normal, you’ll have a glucose challenge test in between 24 and 28 weeks to look for this relatively typical condition.).
Urine Test for Protein
Excess protein in your urine can be a sign of a urinary tract infection (UTI), kidney damage, or certain other conditions. Later in your pregnancy, it can also be a sign of preeclampsia if it’s accompanied by high blood pressure. If you have protein in your urine however your high blood pressure is typical, your service provider might send a clean-catch midstream sample to the laboratory in a sterile container to test for a UTI.
Urine Test for Ketones
Ketones are produced when the body begins breaking down kept or ingested fat for energy. This can take place when you’re not getting sufficient carbs (your body’s usual source of energy).
If you’re struggling with severe nausea and vomiting or you’ve reduced weight during pregnancy, your specialist may inspect your urine for ketones. If your ketone reading is high and you can’t keep any food or liquid down, you may require intravenous fluids and medication. If ketones are found in combination with sugar, it might be a sign of diabetes.
Urine Test for Blood Cells or Bacteria
On your first prenatal visit, your urine sample will more than likely be evaluated for bacteria that suggest a UTI through a lab urinalysis and a culture and sensitivity test. (The culture reveals whether you have a UTI, and the sensitivity test shows which antibiotics can effectively treat the infection.).
If this preliminary test is unfavorable, your risk of establishing a UTI later in pregnancy is little, unless you have a history of chronic or persistent UTIs.
You may continue to have dipstick tests during your pregnancy or you may just have one if you reveal symptoms. The dipstick test look for a certain enzyme (produced by white blood cells) and nitrites (produced by certain bacteria), both which signal a UTI. If either of these shows up on a dipstick test, a sterile urine sample will be sent out to the lab for a culture and sensitivity test.
You usually have to wait about 48 hours for the results of a urine culture and sensitivity test. Nevertheless, your professional may start you on some sort of antibiotics prior to the screening is total, particularly if you have symptoms of a urinary tract infection.
You’ll be tested again after treatment of a UTI and at regular periods during your pregnancy if your service provider feels you’re at risk for persistent UTIs– for instance, if you have a history of kidney infection or regular UTIs.
While UTIs typically cause painful symptoms when you’re not pregnant, it’s possible to have a UTI with no symptoms during pregnancy. If left unattended, even a painless, symptomless UTI can progress to a full-blown kidney infection, which generally needs hospitalization.
