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Twenty-three-year-old Crystal Porter's first pregnancy was a memorable one. Her burgeoning belly performed weight-gain and weight-loss acrobatics, swinging first to one extreme and then another.
By her third trimester, it was not unusual for Porter to gain 10 pounds, lose 8 the next day and then gain 5 pounds back again. But for Porter, it wasn't a battle with poor eating habits that caused the fluctuations.
For many women diagnosed with polyhydramnios, the amount of fluid makes it difficult to feel the baby's movements. |
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Her first pregnancy was marked by polyhydramnios, a medical term meaning Porter's uterus was filled with too much amniotic fluid. Most often, physicians gauge the amount of fluid by number. For example, while most women measure at an amniotic fluid level of 11 around 7 months of pregnancy, Porter measured 38.
"Besides being miserable, I did look rather ridiculous," says Porter. "My stomach didn't even look real." The Springfield, Ill., mother-to-be had an uneventful pregnancy until she reached her 7th month, when amniotic fluid levels began to fluctuate between 25 and 38.
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