If you notice frequent thirst, dry skin, dry lips, and light-headedness, you are dehydrated. Dehydration during pregnancy is quite dangerous and should not be taken lightly. It affects both your and your baby’s health.
How Much Water To Drink?
The standard quantity recommended by experts is eight to ten glasses per day. This is inclusive of juices, beverages and other sources of water. But ideally, your first option should be plain water. Other drinks contain calories along with water in them. During pregnancy, your body needs extra water as you have so many other additional functions during pregnancy. Water helps in the formation of your placenta and later the amniotic sac too. The placenta acts as the medium for the fetus to get nutrients.
Causes Of Dehydration During Pregnancy
Dehydration can be caused due to a number of reasons such as morning sickness, diarrhea, air travel, lack of fluids in the body, overheating, humidity. Pregnancy in general causes higher amounts of water loss. So if you do not replace this loss, it leads to dehydration.
Morning sickness is primarily the cause of water loss or dehydration during pregnancy. Most women experience morning sickness during pregnancy. The symptoms include nausea, vomiting, frequent urination, and sweating. Usually, morning sickness lasts until the second trimester but a few women also experience it in the third trimester too. When you lose water, the nauseating feeling during morning sickness does not let you drink any fluids.
Diarrhea is caused due to hormonal changes, dietary habits or aversion to a few foods. Diarrhea leads to loss of electrolytes and fluids in your body causing dehydration.
Talk to your doctor and get the best water-intake regime for you and your baby. There are a lot of factors this depends on such as your body weight, climate, and your diet.
Apart from these, working out in warm weathers, humidity, overheating also lead to dehydration.
Symptoms Of Dehydration
Dehydration may be recognized with a list of symptoms or signs such as:
- Dizziness, vertigo
- Frequent thirst
- A headache, migraines
- Dark yellow urine
- Dry mouth, nose or skin
- Chapped lips or swollen tongue
Effects of Dehydration
If you experience dehydration during your first trimester, the risks are of two types.
- Effects on the mother- When you experience dehydration, you start feeling nauseatic. And this nauseatic feeling will not make you feel like drinking water too, which results in your dehydration worsening. If it persists, you may have to be hospitalized for IV drips.
- Effects on the baby- When there is a lack of fluids in your body, it means your baby’s supply through the amniotic sac is also troubled. Your baby will not receive sufficient nutrients and it may disrupt the growth of your baby. It can even lead to deformation of his feet or hands.
Treatment Mild Dehydration
Try and drink a lot of water, plain water. Apart from plain water, you can also drink juices, eat fruits with high water content, have tea or other beverages. Refrain from alcohol as it only aggravates your dehydration.
When To Call A Doctor?
If dehydration is mild, it can be treated at home. But, if the above remedies do not work and you start experiencing severe symptoms, you must visit your doctor with no further ado.
The unusual symptoms for severe dehydration are:
- Fainting
- Weak pulse
- Rapid heartbeat
- Blood in your stool
- No urge to urinate for more than eight hours
- Persistent vomiting
When your doctor advises you to get hospitalized, your doctor may do an array of tests and checkups to ensure that you and your baby are safe and healthy.
