Getting kidney stones during pregnancy is unfortunately more likely for women than getting them when they’re not pregnant. A variety of changes with vitamins and minerals are happening in the body when you’re pregnant, and these changes can cause the formation of kidney stones. There is also some speculation that later in the pregnancy, the size and position of the uterus can also restrict urine flow from the kidneys to the bladder, which makes it more difficult for for the kidneys to be able to eliminate waste build up effectively.
Women’s bodies also tend to handle calcium less effectively during pregnancy, and this could cause the onset of kidney stones. Bladder or urinary tract infections also tend to be more common in pregnant women, and these too can cause kidney stones to develop.
One more thing that could be a contributing factor with women getting kidney stones during pregnancy, is lack of fluids. Your body needs much more water than normal when you’re pregnant, and allowing it to get dehydrated can cause kidney stones to develop. This is one of the reasons your doctor advises you to get plenty of fluids.
Unfortunately some women are prone to getting chronic kidney stones when they’re pregnant. Anyone – pregnant or not – has a higher risk of getting kidney stones again once they’ve had them the first time. For pregnant women though, the ordeal of having kidney stones with pregnancy is extremely painful and frightening. And it often lasts for months.
When large kidney stones develop, they’re accompanied by extreme pain. Some people equate the level of pain to being worse than childbirth or heart attacks. The pain generally starts just below your ribs on your back, and travels around the side into the pelvis and groin area. Pregnant women who experience this pain the first time think they’re going into early labor.
Complications arise however, when a woman is pregnant and has kidney stones. Testing for the stones is not as straight forward as normal, because the emergency room or doctor cannot do xrays. Ultrasounds can be done, but these don’t always show the presence of a kidney stone. Urine tests can be done as well because a common symptom of kidney stones is having blood in the urine. Unfortunately not all kidney stone problems will show blood in the urine.
Surgical options are also severely limited with kidney stones and pregnancy. In fact, some doctors recommend their patients simply take pain medications to control the pain until the baby is born, after which one of the surgical procedures can safely be done.
Other times the doctor will recommend placing a stent into the bladder, which travels up into the ureters, the narrow drainage tubes which connect the kidneys to the bladder. These stents are supposed to help kidney stones pass, but many pregnant women report that the stents often must be left in for the remainder of their pregnancy, and the pain from those stents can be just as bad as labor itself.
As you can probably tell, having kidney stones while pregnant can be a horrible experience that lasts for months. You might be able to help prevent the formation of kidney stones while you’re pregnant by drinking plenty of extra water, and avoiding high oxalate foods such as nuts, dark leafy green vegetables, berries and chocolate.
Drinking pure lemon juice freshly squeezed or from concentrate has been known to help dissolve kidney stones too. Keep in mind that pre-made lemonade drinks might not do the job though. You need to use actual lemon juice, about 2 ounces or half a lemon, every day to help prevent the stones from forming. You can add the lemon juice to your tea or water each morning too. If you have stones already, try drinking the lemon juice about once each hour until the pain is gone.
