From early on in your pregnancy, you may feel as if you’re spending your whole life in the restroom. During pregnancy, you need to urinate more frequently for a variety of reasons. At the beginning of your pregnancy, your uterus is inside your pelvis. But toward the end of your first trimester (at around 12 weeks), your uterus expands enough to rise up into your abdominal cavity.
Your enlarging uterus may compress your bladder, which both decreases its capacity and increases the feeling that you need to urinate. Also, your blood volume rises markedly during pregnancy, and that means the rate at which your kidneys produce urine also increases.
You can’t do much about your need to urinate frequently, except use common sense. Before going out for long (or even short) trips, empty your bladder so that you don’t find yourself needing facilities when none are available. Drink plenty of fluids during pregnancy to avoid dehydration, but try to drink more during the day and less in the evening so that you aren’t up all night going to the bathroom.
Coffee and tea contain caffeine (a diuretic, which increases the flow of urine) and may aggravate the situation, so try decreasing the amount of caffeine you consume.
If you find yourself urinating even more than your pregnancy norm or if you feel any discomfort or burning or notice blood during urination, talk to your practitioner. When you’re pregnant, bacteria in your urine are more likely than usual to cause a urinary tract infection.