How to Prevent Frequent Urination during Pregnancy

Body changes that occur during pregnancy can cause pregnant women to feel certain complaints. One of the complaints is frequent urination during pregnancy. However, is this complaint normal? Then, how to prevent frequent urination during pregnancy? Check out the explanation in this article.

Urination is one of the body's natural processes to remove metabolic waste or waste substances, toxins and excess fluids from the body. A person will usually urinate 6-8 times each day.

However, when you are pregnant, you may feel the need to urinate more often. Of course, it is not uncommon for some pregnant women to urinate up to 10 times a day. Usually these complaints can appear at certain times, for example at night, so that it can interfere with pregnant women's rest time.

Is Frequent Urination Normal during Pregnancy?

Is frequent urination normal in pregnancy? Frequent urination during pregnancy is a common complaint experienced by pregnant women, especially when the gestational age has entered the third trimester. Usually these complaints are caused due to hormonal changes during pregnancy.

The occurrence of changes in pregnancy hormones can make the pregnant woman's body produce more blood. This is what can make the kidneys filter more blood so that urine production becomes more increased. This increase in the amount of urine causes the bladder to fill up faster so that it can stimulate pregnant women to urinate frequently.

In addition, as the gestational age and growth of the fetus increase, it can increase the size of the uterus. The increasing size of the uterus is what can put pressure on the bladder, thus making pregnant women feel the need to urinate frequently.

What Are the Causes of Frequent Urination during Pregnancy

The frequency of urination during pregnancy can fluctuate, depending on the gestational age. Some of the possible causes of frequent urination during pregnancy in each trimester are as follows:

1. First trimester

One of the early signs of pregnancy is urinating more frequently. This condition occurs due to an increase in the hormone hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), which is a hormone that can trigger increased urine production accompanied by an enlargement of the size of the uterus.

2. Second trimester

The frequency of urination in the second trimester of pregnancy may be reduced and not as much as during the first trimester. This is due to a change in the size and location of the uterus which is getting further away from the bladder. However, it is possible that some pregnant women still feel frequent urination in the second trimester of pregnancy. This can occur due to feelings of anxiety or stress during pregnancy.

3. Third trimester

In the third trimester of pregnancy, usually the urge to urinate frequently will appear again and can even get worse to the point of disrupting sleep. This happens because the size of the fetus is getting bigger and its position is below the pelvis, so the pressure on the bladder will become stronger.

How to Stop Frequent Urination during Pregnancy

How can I stop frequent urination during pregnancy? To prevent or relieve complaints of frequent urination, pregnant women can do the following tips:

1. Avoid consuming caffeinated drinks

Pregnant women can reduce their consumption of caffeinated drinks such as coffee, tea, soda and other drinks that contain caffeine to prevent frequent urination. This is because caffeine can stimulate the body to urinate more often.

2. Stop drinking water before going to bed

If pregnant women feel disturbed due to frequent awakenings due to urination at night, then they can try to reduce fluid consumption or stop drinking water about 1-2 hours before going to bed. However, make sure that during the day, water intake for pregnant women is fulfilled as much as 8-12 glasses per day. The goal is that pregnant women can avoid the risk of dehydration during pregnancy.

3. Do Kegel exercises

When the gestational age enters the final trimester, apart from frequent urge to urinate, pregnant women may find it difficult to hold back their urine. To overcome this problem, pregnant women can try doing Kegel exercises. In addition, pregnant women should not hold their urine too often. This is because the habit of holding urine too often can weaken the pelvic floor muscles, making it difficult to hold urine.

4. Reduce stress

As explained above, that stress is one of the causes of frequent urination. If during pregnancy you often feel anxious or stressed, try to reduce stress by relaxing or doing light exercise such as yoga for pregnant women.

Frequent urination during pregnancy is normal and usually goes away on its own after delivery. However, in certain cases complaints of frequent urination can also be caused by urinary tract infections. This condition is prone to occur in pregnant women who often hold urine.

Also read articles about: How to Prevent Urinary Tract Infection during Pregnancy

Normal frequent urination is different from frequent urination due to urinary tract infections. Usually complaints of frequent urination due to urinary tract infections are accompanied by other symptoms such as pain when urinating, urine that looks cloudy, urine accompanied by blood, urine that smells bad and body fever.

Therefore, if complaints of frequent urination that pregnant women feel are very disturbing and are accompanied by other symptoms, for example, it is difficult to hold urine, then you should immediately consult an obstetrician to determine whether complaints of frequent urination are normal or not.

That's an explanation of how to prevent frequent urination during pregnancy. Hopefully this explanation can be useful.