3rd urinary tract infection.....

is this normal...every time I go for my 4 week appointment I have a urinary tract infections...i have no symptoms and once again I have to take antibiotics....

Is this bad for the baby?

What can I do to stop this from happening again?

Re: 3rd urinary tract infection.....

I have been having the same thing. I have symptoms though and am usually in a lot of pain because of it. They keep putting me on antiobiotics too which I hate but I get nervous that I will have it through the whole pregnancy and even worse when I go to deliver. I heard that if you do have one at that time than you cant deliver naturally. Does anyone know if thats true?

Re: 3rd urinary tract infection.....

Re: 3rd urinary tract infection.....

Sorry you are having such issues with UTI's. All I can offer is 2 peices of advice. One is to drink 100% juice cranberry juice with no sugar added every day. At least one glass a day.
And second make sure the initial infection is gone. After you finish your meds have the doctor run a uninalysis to make sure that the urine in clean. Otherwise you will just ends up with another one.
Ok, I lied 3 things. Third is to make sure you empty your bladder when you need to. No trying to hold it a little longer since you feel like you are always in the bathroom.
I hope your doctor can get them under control .

Re: 3rd urinary tract infection.....

You may not be getting a "clean catch" sample. It is very hard for a woman to get a not-contaminated sample, especially a pregnant woman. Basically meaning that you may have a bacteria on the outside that isnt really a UTI but shows up as one. Also, your culture count may be very low. Generally it isnt necessary to treat a UTI if the culture count is under 10,000, but Ob/gyns tend to treat anything at all.
Please take my advice and ask what your count is, as well as taking another sample that they send out to a lab where you wipe yourself with 4 antiseptic wipes thoroughly on the outside. I am currently on bedrest because I had 2 back-to-back UTI's and the antibiotics caused me to develp a bacterial infection in my intestines because they killed all the good bacteria. I was hospitalized for intense pain, starting having contractions and going into pre-term labor as a result...all because of too many antibiotics from UTI's. Right after I was released from the hospital I came back positive for another UTI, but called a kidney doctor who encouraged me to do another sample...this time with very detailed ways of getting a clean sample--and the sample came back clear.
Im not saying this will all happen to you, but it can be dangerous to take that many antibiotics, especially when you are pregnant.
ETA: I also had no symptoms of UTI's.

Message edited 11/6/2007 6:42:59 PM.

Re: 3rd urinary tract infection.....

I would also second the recommendation for them to do a culture. I had a test come back positive, but when they cultured the sample they found that the bacteria was Group B strep -- the same stuff they are swapping for at 36 weeks that is harmless to mom when at reasonable levels (but requires antibiotics during labor to protect baby.) So I didn't need treatment.

Re: 3rd urinary tract infection.....

I've had 2 uti's so far. My ob said it is totally normal and that sometimes it takes more than one dose of antibiotics to get it out of your system. My ob did say that if I get one more uti, I'll have to be on antibiotics for the rest of the pregnancy. He also encouraged me to drink plenty of water and cranberry juice.

Re: 3rd urinary tract infection.....

Thank you ladies....

When I do give urine they always make me wipe with an antiseptic wipe...

but I am going to ask them to run my urine again after the antibiotics. I am going to ask them what my count is.

I also bought cranberry pills (oked by doctor) that I will start today and will up the amount of water I drink.

Re: 3rd urinary tract infection.....

I went for another test after I finished the antibiotic....

My doctor just called me ... she said that my count is less than half of what it was the last time

Last time - 100,000

this time - 40,000

She said since I have my next appt. in 2 weeks she is not going to give me antibiotics for now and test again at my next appointment. In the meantime. I am drinking more water and cranberry juice....

Any other natural way to prevent the UTI?

Re: 3rd urinary tract infection.....

Just to make sure that as soon as you feel the urge to pee to make sure you go...dont let it stay in there too long...Ive also heard to try to "second eliminate", meaning after you pee once to try again a few minutes later just to make sure you get everything out, lean forward when you are peeing and wipe front to back. Plus the water and the cranberry juice....make sure its pure cranberry juice...my dr. actually suggested to drink just one glass of cranberry juice right before bed so that it is the last thing sitting in your stomach....thats all the stuff Ive been told....good luck!!

Re: 3rd urinary tract infection.....

Re: 3rd urinary tract infection.....

I agree with some of the posts on this thread. It is very difficult for women to get a non-contaminated sample of urine. It only foolproof way to get a clean sample is via catheter. Most MDs including urologists don't really do this, but I had back to back infections for 2 years, with no symptoms. I finally saw a great urologist in Manhatten, and he looked at all my urine cultures. He was shocked that no one ever did a cath sample, because I had extremely low white counts.

Anyway, after two years of antibiotics, the cath sample revealed that there was no infection.

Good luck.

Pregnant women have to be very carfeul, because they are more likely to have UTIs with no symptoms. Maybe you'll want to ask for the catheter sample (it didn't hurt me when my OB did it).