Bright Orange Urine during Pregnancy

Every new sign during pregnancy can make you feel anxious and give you jitters. These jitters are difficult to deal with, as you are obviously taking utmost care of yourself and most essentially the baby. This may be all the more frustrating when you see signs bothering you rather than making you feel comfortable and at ease with your body. The most prominent sign that disturbs mums-to-be is the change in the urine color. The color may go through a number of changes in terms of color and odor that it emits, when thrown out of the system. It is due to this very reason that one needs to know what the changing urine color means.

Why Urine Color Changes

The kidneys are responsible for producing urine. Kidneys filter the blood and thus processes blood plasma, allowing water, sugar, amino acids, vitamins and other vital substances to re-enter the blood stream. As this filtration continues, this process in turn sorts out waste substances like urea, uric acid, hormone waste and toxins. These are toxins and waste matter that is excreted out in the urine. In normal circumstances, the color of urine is pale yellow, and this color is due to the pigment urochrome. The cause of concern is when the pale color of urine is altered. This generally happens when there is a detection of kidney diseases. It is during this stage that the filtration process of urine production becomes faulty. Due to this, certain elements like red blood cells, white blood cells, proteins, dyes, etc., also get filtered through, thus passing into the urine. This leads to a change in the urine color. In certain cases, you may also witness traces of blood in the urine. This is a condition causing hematuria. It's this meaning of urine color that is used to reach a temporary diagnosis.

Causative Factors of Bright Orange-colored Urine

If the urine color during pregnancy is orange, thus making you anxious, the first thing that you need to do is to relax. The orange color of the urine does not mean that something is necessarily wrong. The reasons could be as elementary as drinking considerably less water or something that you have been eating that is contributing to the color. It may also be due to the fact that you have been consuming prenatal vitamins that has been causing the urine color to change. To make you feel all the more comfortable, let this article state that many women experience the same signs of urine color changing, yet have had an absolutely normal and healthy pregnancy.

Dehydration
You might have observed that when you are not pregnant, your urine color changes from clear to pale yellow when you have not had enough water to flush out the system. During pregnancy, the scenario remains unchanged. All you need to do is to keep yourself well-hydrated and ensure that you are getting enough water to drink throughout the day. Make a conscious effort to drink water even if you are not very religious with your habit of drinking water. You may notice that the urine could just be more concentrated than usual, thus resulting in a darker yellow color. Thus, it is very important that you get enough water during your pregnancy.

What You Eat
What you eat can also cause bright orange urine during pregnancy. Asparagus, beets and carrots can also change the color of your urine. Follow a well-balanced diet rich in vitamins and minerals, and don't worry about the effect it has on the color of your urine. It is important that you have a good and well-balanced diet, so that the urine color does not change.

Prenatal Vitamins
Vitamins play a major role in changing the color of urine. What your body does not absorb from the vitamins with the current intake, is instead removed from the body via the urine. Prenatal vitamins are no exception. Vitamins are packed with very beneficial ingredients that promote the well-being for you and your baby. But your body probably doesn't need to absorb all of them. Vitamin B12 is the primary factor that causes bright orange or yellow urine during pregnancy. Don't stop taking your prenatal vitamins just because of the change in the color of the urine.

Make sure that during your pregnancy, you drink more water, follow a well-balanced diet, and keep taking your prenatal vitamins. If however you experience any discomfort during your pregnancy, along with dark orange urine, make it a point to let your doctor know about the issue. Generally, bright orange urine occurring while pregnant should not be an issue requiring an urgent concern.