The norm in pregnancy is the absence of protein in the urine. However, there are cases when some fluctuations in its indices are possible, which can occur because of the large burden on the kidneys of the mother's body when carrying the child. In pregnancy, the load on all vital systems and the internal organs of the mother doubles, because the body must take care not only of itself, but also of the body of the child to be born. Accordingly, the urinary system also works with a double load, because it has to remove the decay products and toxins not only from the mother's body, but also from the child's body.
In the event that the kidneys do not cope with this function due to the appearance of any inflammatory processes in the urogenital system, a protein may appear in the woman's urine. Foci of inflammation can appear due to careless treatment of their body, and may be the result of any chronic diseases that occurred before pregnancy. Also, the presence of a quantity of protein in the urine, which is significantly higher than normal, may be a symptom of the appearance (or exacerbation of already present) diseases, such as pyelonephritis, cystitis, glomerulonephritis.
The condition in which an increased protein content in the urine is diagnosed is called proteinuria in medicine. If a high level of protein was detected during the next medical examination and examination of the urine test results, then it will be necessary to conduct the corresponding studies regularly several more times. This will allow us to understand the dynamics of the process of increasing the amount of protein in the urine and determine whether it was a single event or has a permanent character. In some cases, it may happen that the increase in protein was a single event: this may be caused by psychological stress, taking certain medications, especially if before that, foods rich in protein were present in the diet of a pregnant woman.
To provoke the development of proteinuria during pregnancy, certain types of diseases can also occur. Such diseases are hypertension, infection of the excretory pathways or kidneys, diabetes mellitus, cardiac congestive failure, polycystic kidney disease. However, the most dangerous condition, in which there is an increased protein content in the blood, doctors consider gestosis. This pathology is typical only for pregnant women, after birth, it disappears without a trace. One of the dangerous properties of gestosis is that the pregnant woman herself may not even suspect its presence without feeling any changes in her body. The appearance of protein in the urine during pregnancy is almost the only evidence of this threatening state.
Gestosis is a pathology of the kidneys, in which the function of the placenta is disturbed: it not only stops protecting the baby from various negative effects, but also becomes unable to deliver the germ necessary to him oxygen and nutrients. In neglected form, gestosis can result in pathologies in child development, premature birth or even the birth of a dead child.
Also, the symptoms of gestosis, in addition to an elevated level of protein in the urine, can be considered the appearance of edema and high blood pressure. Most often, gestosis requires prompt medical intervention: a woman is sent to inpatient treatment, where she will be followed by constant monitoring. When diagnosing gestosis in later periods, even the stimulation of premature birth may be necessary - in some cases, only this step can save the lives of the mother and the child.
However, you should not panic if you find a protein in the urine - an alarming sign that can be considered only if the diagnosis was done several times, and each time the analysis was carried out together with monitoring the blood pressure indicator, before passing the urine for analysis, the woman held an outdoor toilet external genitals and dishes containing a urine sample was guaranteed to be clean and did not interfere with the analysis.