Elevated urine WBC

[Mommy TeleRN, RN]

Hi gang..

This is my first rotation in L&D. Got to watch my first baby being born (where I wasn't the one cussing lol) yesterday..very exciting! I cried more than the baby. Had a great time coaching the mom who was a teen mom. That part was great! When I went in she was thrashing terribly. I was able to help get her calm down and focused. It felt so good to know when she said "I can't do this anymore" that I knew she must be in transition (because I said that both times I was in transition) sure enough... next thing you know "I need to push" I just felt like she trusted what I was saying to her...to keep going because she was close... it worked out great!

Anyway, now for the dreaded paperwork! lol

My only question is:

Elevated urine WBC... it was 30 and the NV according to the report is 0-5. I know it's normal during pregnancy for serum WBC to be elevated, esp during labor. But I'm not sure about the urine levels about the urine level of WBC during pregnancy

From the best I can find WBC > 5 in non pregnant women are usually indicative of UTI. Would this be true for my pt too? If so I don't think anyone was doing anything about it... :uhoh21:

Thanks!

[klone, MSN, RN]

Yes, a WBC value that high would indicate infection. Was this a clean catch? Did this come back from the lab, or was this a dipstick test in the department? If it was from the lab, what was the indication for getting a lab UA?