Water intake and its relation with oligohydramnios and vaginal bleeding among low resource, rural pregnant women:...

Hydration during pregnancy has a significant effect on pregnancy outcomes.

This study was conducted to explore relationship between water intake (WI) during pregnancy with oligohydramnios, vaginal bleeding, and perinatal deaths.

A community-based study was conducted on pregnant women in 100 villages, around village with health facility (study center) over 2 years. Information about WI, oligohydramnios, vaginal bleeding, and pregnancy outcome was collected by asking women about their medical history and looking at their maternity records.

Of 3713 pregnant women, the majority (61.1%) were 20-29 years old, belonged to a low-economic class (62.8%), had low education levels (36.6%), and had previous births (61.0%). Among all participants, 20.7% reported ≤4 glasses WI daily, 25.2% 5-8 glasses, 29.5% nine to <12 glasses, and 24.6% ≥12 glasses. The number of cases of oligohydramnios and vaginal bleeding was significantly greater among women who consumed ≤4 glasses of water/every day (52.3% and 45.5%, respectively), compared to those who consumed ≥12 glasses daily (3.1% and 0%, respectively) (P = 0.001). Among 3713 women, 3258 (87.7%) had term births without any apparent complications or perinatal losses, and 455 (12.3%) experienced complications. Of these 455 women with complications, 129 (28.4%) had preterm births, 8.5% were diagnosed with oligohydramnios, and 326 (71.6%) had term births, 8.0% with oligohydramnios. A significant difference was found in perinatal deaths in preterm births (45.5%) with oligohydramnios compared to 15.4% term births with oligohydramnios (P = 0.001). In women without oligohydramnios, there were 3.7% perinatal deaths in term and 10.4% in preterm babies.

The majority of pregnant women who did not develop oligohydramnios or vaginal bleeding used to drink ≥12 glasses of water daily. Women who had greater water intake were less likely to have oligohydramnios and experienced fewer perinatal deaths.