in August 2025 Babies 🇬🇧

Unsure of discharge

I saw a woman post on here a few hours ago regarding her poor wee baby being born premature due to an untreated UTI and BV ❤️ (if you see this, sending my love to you and your little one) but it has frightened me a little. I have had urine tests at all of my appointments, which have all been clear, and I'm not in any pain or discomfort. But since the beginning of my pregnancy, I have had quite strong smelling discharge. If it had been normal and suddenly smelt strongly, I would have mentioned it to midwives, but since it has had an odour from the beginning I haven't bothered. However, seeing this post has now made me wary? I have had vaginal infections before that I had no symptoms for, and were only caught as I was getting testing for fertility. And prior to being pregnant, and I would get UTIs once or twice a year, which I think is quite a lot. With the UTIs I would usually definitely have symptoms. I'm just wondering if the strong smelling discharge is something that I should bring up, or since it's been there from the beginning, is it possible that it's just my heightened sense of smell and change of hormones causing it? I don't know - any advice welcome, I'm just taking it more seriously from seeing that post.

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The urine tests midwives do at your appointments are only to test for protein in your urine, nothing else. It could be a yeast infection you have which are very common in pregnancy. Anything can cause it. If you are unsure do contact your midwife and explain your symptoms. She might see you or just give you advice over the phone. But nothing to worry about, they are so common. I had a yeast infection with my first and didn’t have any symptoms other than discharge and wasn’t aware I had it until I mentioned the discharge to my midwife at my appointment. They then gave me a prescription to treat it. Anything you are worried about do mention it to your midwife. Even if it’s nothing it then gives you peace of mind. It might not even be a yeast infection but atleast you’ll feel better by mentioning it x

I’ve had so much discharge since the beginning of pregnancy and sometimes it changes from white to more of a cream and sometimes it even has the slightest yellow tinge. The colour change online would indicate I have infection but I’ve had swabs done at my doctors and even with midwives each time I’ve been concerned and it’s never shown any infection so I think it can be very normal for it to change. Saying that it is very common for pregnant women to get bv because of all the changes so I think it would definitely be worth asking for some swabs done for peace of mind. You can get home kits from boots that test for infections aswell. Your midwifery team would probably rather you getting checked just incase than leaving it and having it cause you concern x

It's always best to get it checked out and ask your midwife to do some swabs! I have a stillbirth last year because of BV that was left untreated so this time round I do swabs on myself every 2 weeks and bring them in to my GP for testing. Gives me peace of mind every 2 weeks that I don't have any vaginal infections seeing discharge changes a lot during pregnancy. Always best to be safe xxx