by Jonte Rhodes

Created on: February 24, 2011

Cloudy urine is a common symptom to experience while pregnant, and can have a multitude of causes. Luckily the majority of the time, cloudy urine during pregnancy is often a completely benign condition and will go away by itself after a couple of days.

If the symptom persists or is accompanied with other symptoms such as pain when urinating however, it should be brought to the attention of a medical professional.

The reason being that cloudy urine can be caused by urinary tract infections or even something more serious such as kidney stones.

There are in fact numerous reasons as to why urine can be cloudy, the most common of which are temporary dietary changes.

Consuming a lot of milk on a particular day for example can cause the urine to become cloudy the next day due to a high concentration of calcium crystals, although of course these symptoms are harmless and temporary.

Another common cause of cloudy urine however is urinary tract infections, which will often be accompanied with pain and difficulty urinating. These are particularly common during the later stages of pregnancy, and in some women can tend to be recurrent.

If cloudy urine persists during pregnancy for more than a couple of days, regardless of whether there are any other accompanying symptoms, the best thing to do in every case is to talk to a doctor and make sure it is nothing that requires treatment.

The reason that pregnant women tend to be more susceptible to both cloudy urine and a range of urinary tract problems is that the fetus increases pressure on the bladder, meaning that it is not always completely emptied during urination. This can then lead to bacteria building up in the urinary tract more easily, in turn causing infections more quickly.

It is also thought that hormonal changes during pregnancy are a major cause of both increased cloudy urine and urinary symptoms.

However although pregnancy means increased risk of urinary infections, cloudy urine alone is not a definitive sign that something is wrong in itself. Many different things can cause cloudy urine including dietary changes, increased vaginal discharge and even sexual intercourse.

In cases of urinary infections however, one of the easiest ways of treating many of the symptoms if medical treatment isn't readily available is through drinking unsweetened cranberry juice.

Cranberry juice works because it contains chemicals that inhibit bacteria from sticking to the inside of the urinary tract, meaning that they are more easily expelled from the body and can't build up as quickly.

Generally, a short course of antibiotics is prescribed for most urinary tract infections which when taken to completion will clear up the majority on infections unless related by an underlying cause. In cases of more serious infections, or perhaps involvement of other areas of the urinary system, a mid-stream urine sample is analyzed.

Although generally the treatments used for urinary tract infections during pregnancy are the same
as when not pregnant, it is still important to mention to any medical professional that isn't familiar with your medical history that you are pregnant. The reason being that certain chemicals found in medicines and antibiotics are not suitable for expectant mothers.

Kidney stones is another fairly common cause of cloudy urine, which will often be accompanied with severe abdominal or kidney pain. Generally speaking the treatments are the same as they would be without pregnancy, and tend to range by how serious the stones are.

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