Q&A: Would drinking more fluids help increase the amniotic fluid around your baby?

by Dr. Gerard M. DiLeo

If you have low amniotic fluid and your belly measurement doesn't add up with your expectant due date would drinking more fluids help increase the amniotic fluid around your baby?

Dehydration can affect amniotic fluid volume, but this is wishful thinking. Instead, other causes should be ruled out just to give you peace of mind. Since most of the amniotic fluid volume is contributed from fetal urine, one would first want to rule out fetal kidney or urinary tract problems, which could possibly be fixed during the pregnancy. But there is some good news:

The total volume of turnover of amniotic fluid is over several hours, so one snapshot measurement is usually not meaningful at all, another ultrasound showing everything as normal. And it must be determined by ultrasound. You can't suspect low amniotic fluid by measuring your belly size--this is very inexact. The fact that you're worried about this based on belly measurements means you probably don't really have low amniotic fluid.

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