How Will I Know When My Water Breaks?

Frequently I get calls in the middle of the night, from patients who think their water may have broken. Some will tell me they've had the giant gush in the bathroom and that after they finished peeing, it kept coming and coming and they didn't really think it was voiding anymore.

Others would tell me they are having a constant trickle and they are noticing there panties are getting wet. If you think your water has broken it's really important to note the time that you think this started, so that we may know how long maybe your water has been broken, if there was any color or any odour, any signs of the blood, any signs that the baby maybe had a bowel movement, and you need to call your healthcare provider and give them this information.

Unfortunately sometimes it will mean a false trip to the hospital or the birthing center because the baby kicked your bladder in the middle of the night and so you got that gush of fluid. But if you were to put a panty liner or a pad on you wouldn't get wet anymore and if you were to look at the panty liner you would see signs that it was urine and not the actual water breaking.

So if you call me during the middle of the night, I'm going to ask you to put on a pad, to look and see what's coming out, you may continue to have little bits of dribbles, that maybe your water that broke, you may continue to have gushes here and there. If you answer to me that the pad didn't stay dry I'm going to want you to come in to be evaluated.

All healthcare providers want to know when your water broke and so please don't hesitate to call us even if it's two or three in the morning, we would rather have a call about a baby who kicked the bladder than not know that your water had been broken for two or three days. We want healthy moms and healthy babies.