Levels Of Protein In Urine During Pregnancy – Having protein in the urine (called proteinuria) during pregnancy is not too unusual, but when the results start to be +1 or +2, your doctor will start to become more concerned as you enter the third trimester. Let this L&D RN tell you exactly why this happens, why they’re testing your urine sample, and why it’s a problem.

Hello! I’m Hilary – many people know me as Pregnancy Nurse 👩‍⚕️. I’ve been a registered nurse since 1997 and have 20 years experience in labor and birth, I’m also the curly head behind this Pulling Curls website and The Online Prenatal Class for Couples. 🩺​ I’ve done a ton of urine tests on pregnant women in my time, so I’m a good resource for that!

Levels Of Protein In Urine During Pregnancy

When you are pregnant, your body has a much larger blood volume than normal. Your kidneys have to “open up” a bit to let all that volume of blood through. A little isn’t a problem, but too much protein slipping through the kidneys can be a sign of preeclampsia.

The Genetics Of Pre Eclampsia

If you have questions about your pregnancy and your care during it, this is the first step. It will really help to simplify the task, to be easy to understand and participate in your care.

Protein in your urine before about 20 weeks (or when you’re NOT pregnant) usually indicates a urinary tract infection (UTI) or other problem, not preeclampsia. This is a fairly minor infection and not as problematic.

Around the 20th week of pregnancy, your healthcare provider will start paying more attention to your blood pressure and any protein in your urine.

While the 24-hour urine protein test has been the “gold standard” for several years, they seem to be finding the creatinine protein ratio test to be just as good and MUCH more convenient (and quick ) versus a 24-hour test. urine.

Accuracy Of Home Pregnancy Tests

With 24-hour urine collection, you most often have to stay at home most of the day because you have to collect

Urine and keep it cold (usually either in the refrigerator or on ice at home). This makes it difficult to go for more than an hour, and most women prefer not to go to work when they collect urine all day.

**In the book Call the Midwife, they put women’s urine on the heater to see if the protein would coagulate – a pretty cool old school method, like cooking eggs!

I want to be clear that it is not the actual PROTEIN that is the problem. It’s what’s happening in your kidneys as a result of possible preeclampsia that’s the problem. If we let it continue long term, you may suffer from serious kidney damage or chronic kidney disease. They can check your kidney function by running a BUN or serum creatinine (these are blood tests).

Hypertensive Disorders Of Pregnancy: Definition, Management, And Out Of Office Blood Pressure Measurement

Preeclampsia (or Hellp syndrome) causes the blood vessels to leak even more than usual. That’s why you’d be bloated (again, SOME bloat isn’t unusual – it’s an excessive amount) and also your kidneys leak fluid and don’t filter your urine as well as they did before you got pregnant/had pre-eclampsia. About 15% of women in the United States have PIH or preeclampsia (also called HELLP syndrome). But, most pregnant women do NOT have this problem – and have a totally normal pregnancy.

I know it’s annoying to be weighed during pregnancy, but sudden weight gain can be a sign of preeclampsia due to swelling in your body, so those weigh-ins are important.

They will take other lab tests to check for these things, usually called a PIH panel. These can be ordered from your regular antenatal appointments or sometimes refer you to the hospital for follow-up.

There’s really no way to get rid of protein in your urine during pregnancy because it’s caused by something that isn’t entirely your fault. Preeclampsia starts when the fetus implants in your uterus, and although you don’t see symptoms until later in your pregnancy, it’s due to something science isn’t sure about yet (the post I linked to has a TON of information on preeclampsia , I highly recommend it).

Gestational Diabetes Diet: What To Eat For A Healthy Pregnancy

And, just because you have preeclampsia during this pregnancy, doesn’t mean you will have it in your next pregnancy. The best thing you can do is try to live as healthy a lifestyle as possible (but be aware that sometimes even that doesn’t help much).

You’ll notice that it doesn’t really matter if it’s your third or first pregnancy (beyond the fact that you get older the more kids you have). Protein in the urine can appear at any time.

So by losing weight, lowering your risk of diabetes and keeping track of other health conditions – you can help prevent it – but not all women with preeclampsia have any of these high risk factors – we just know that there are more

This is when your healthcare provider may start to be concerned—there is too much protein in your urine. They may double check your blood pressure or send you for more labs. They may also follow you until your next appointment if you have no other signs and symptoms of preeclampsia.

Protein In The Urine During Pregnancy; What Does It Tell You

These numbers are associated with a quick urine dipstick – the other tests (ratio and 24 hour urine have different numbers)

Keep in mind that there are lots of other reasons they test your urine, including gestational diabetes (but that’s a different urine dipstick test). They also test for white blood cells – which could show a kidney infection. Or red blood cells that could have kidney stones or an infection.

4+ protein in the urine is as high as the urine dipstick test – they see this in many severe cases of preeclampsia. They have more definitive numbers in the 24-hour urine or ratio test I mentioned above, and as a pregnant woman, you may end up taking that as well.

I hope I’ve made it clear that it’s not PROTEIN we’re dealing with, it’s preeclampsia. You can learn more about preeclampsia here.

Ketones Urine Test

Preeclampsia is a serious condition, so it’s a big reason why prenatal checkups are so important.

Note that hypertension ALONE would be more of a chronic hypertension (could also be during pregnancy – which is called gestational hypertension) – so that would be treated DIFFERENTLY than preeclampsia. The creatinine protein ratio is really important to determine this.

If you are diagnosed with preeclampsia, you may be induced early and have an early birth – but these will all be decided by a team of health professionals, who most often consult a perinatologist (a high-risk pregnancy doctor picked up).

Since doctors check your urine at check-ups. Often, traces of protein in the urine are the first sign. But, severe headaches are often the first sign as well.

Mean Arterial Pressure And 24‑h Urine Protein Level During Pregnancy….

Keep in mind that it’s not uncommon to have headaches during pregnancy—but a preeclampsia headache sticks around, even with Tylenol or water.

It can restrict blood flow to the baby (even if you have higher blood pressure, less passes through the placenta), but mostly the problem is due to the mother’s health, so she doesn’t convulse, etc.

Finally, if there is so much pulsatile blood flow (indicated by high blood pressure), you could be at risk of placental abruption in which the placenta begins to detach from the uterine wall—a serious complication. Also, because your heart is working so hard with all of this, it can cause heart disease or pulmonary edema.

If you have more questions about preeclampsia, don’t miss my other post on preeclampsia, which will give you more information about treatments and more symptoms to watch out for.

Testing Positive For Glucose In Your Urine During Pregnancy

But, it’s important to get it all right – jump right in, so come join me in the Online Prenatal Class for Couples, where we keep things simple and get you ready easy!

Or, if you’re not quite ready for the full course, check out my free prenatal course — It’s the first step to being your own birth boss. Screening for protein in the urine during pregnancy is part of routine prenatal care (1) . During pregnancy, urinary protein excretion doubles and can reach up to 300 mg/24 h compared to 150 mg/24 h in non-pregnant individuals.

According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), if your urinary protein excretion exceeds 300 mg in a 24-hour collection, you have a protein/creatinine

XA muscle waste product removed from the kidney by urine ratio ≥ 0.3 mg/mg or gives 2+ or more readings on urine test, can be defined as proteinuria or protein in urine during pregnancy (2 ).

How To Increase Hemoglobin During Pregnancy

Read on to know the causes of increased urinary protein excretion during pregnancy, risk factors, symptoms and how it can be treated in a pregnant woman.

Certain risk factors that can increase the likelihood of protein in the urine during pregnancy include (6) (7):

You may not notice any symptoms of mildly elevated urine protein levels. However, high levels of protein in the urine during pregnancy could

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