Background: For many women, oligohydramnios is a time of reappraisal of behavior, nutrition, and lifestyle to ensure that their fetus has the best and healthiest start in life. Most pregnant women are likely to pay more attention to living healthily and eating a healthy diet than they did before pregnancy. Acute oral hydration is an effective way of increasing AFI. It is a noninvasive, easily accessible and cheap intervention, which should be encouraged.
Objective: To assess the effect of acute oral hydration on amniotic fluid index (AFI) and associated Doppler changes.
Patients and methods: This study was conducted at El-Mahalla General Hospital aiming to evaluate the role of maternal hydration on oligohydramnios and Doppler changes. A total of 40 pregnant ladies with oligohydramnios were included and they were divided into two equal groups; group A received oral hydration therapy, and group B received the normal amount of fluid intake.
Results: The mean AFI in group A before treatment was 3.6 ± 1.3 and in group B was 3.4 ± 1.5 with no significant difference between the two groups (p=0.367). The mean AFI in group A after treatment was 8.6 ± 1.3 and in group B it was 5.8 ± 1.2 with statistically significant difference between the two groups (p=0.005). There was a statistically significant difference between the values of AFI before and after treatment in group A (p < 0.001), but not in group B (0.052).
Conclusion: Oral hydration therapy was effective in improving oligohydramnios status in pregnant women. Moreover, renal and uterine arteries pulsatility indices also improved via such method of management. Nevertheless, umbilical artery pulsatility and resistance indices showed non-significant improvement.