Why do kidney stones appear in women during pregnancy? Kidney stones have been seen to appear rarely in pregnant women; however, they are not that impossible an occurrence. Kidney stones are formed when certain chemicals or the calcium oxalate in a person's urine combines to form crystals. When the crystals that are formed stick together, these create those things we call kidney stones. The sizes of these Kidney Stone may vary from a rather small grain-like size to a rather massive golf-ball size.

Kidney Stones

Kidney Stones are often the result of one or more factors, some of which may be associated with pregnancy. Some of the more probable reasons why some pregnant women suffer from kidney stones during their pregnancy include the blockage of the urinary tract, minimal fluid intake and limited activity for a span of a few weeks. While kidney stones in pregnant women are pretty rare, with an estimated 2 is to 1,000 ratio in some studies, which shows that they do occur in rather low numbers in this kind of a problem, they still do exist.

The connection between kidney stones and pregnancy often translates to a huge possibility of the premature deliver of the baby. This kind of a possibility has been shown to happen 80% of the time and preventive measures need to be exacted way before the baby is to enter its second or third trimester of development.

The preventive measures that pregnant women should exact themselves include drinking lots of water and fluids during the entire pregnancy and moving around in a light form of exercise to help prevent kidney stones from forming. For those instances when these kidney stones are given the opportunity to form through no fault of the pregnant woman, like when the fetus settles into a position where the urinary tract gets blocked, early detection and removal or dissolution of the kidney stone will likely take care of the risk of a preterm delivery.

Another way to prevent the escalation of this problem into a life threatening problem for the baby is for the mother to undergo a urine test before she plans to have a baby to ensure that there are no small kidney stones in her system before she does get pregnant. Getting rid of any small stones and even the bigger ones before becoming pregnant may also reduce the risks that pregnant women and their babies may suffer if kidney stones are found.