White Blood Cells During Pregnancy
June 23, 2026
- All it takes is just a drop of saliva
Leukocytes, commonly known as white blood cells are elevated in pregnancy. There are more leukocytes in your blood and your urine during pregnancy, but what white blood cell count (WBC) is normal during pregnancy? As with many bodily changes during pregnancy, what is normal for you is where you starts by understanding how much your WBC increase is normal for you during your pregnancy. If your nonpregnant WBC is 5,000, then a WBC of 10,000 or 11,000 is probably normal for you during your pregnancy, but if you start your pregnancy with a WBC of more than 5,000, normal for you could be 15,000.
Pregnant women normally do not run fevers easily, so the usual symptoms of infection such as an above-normal temperature and an elevated WBC are hard to interpret in pregnancy. We have to rely more on what our patients tell us to know if they may have an infection. For example, does the patient feel chilly, have a cough, have diarrhea, or have a backache representing a kidney infection or a gallbladder infection? How about that shoulder pain? Is that gallbladder trouble, liver trouble, pneumonia, colitis, gastritis, or trouble with your spleen?
In pregnancy, there are two ways to check for white blood cells in urine. The patient can provide a clean catch urine sample. However, there is more vaginal discharge in pregnancy which may interfere with the clean catch. The most accurate test for leucocytes in the urine during pregnancy is sterile catheterization.
While I expect the politically correct answer is to ignore elevated leukocytes in the urine of pregnant women, I would be very careful with that advice. A urine WBC might not signify a bladder infection, but it could forecast trouble. An elevated WBC could represent a Group B strep infection, so a urine culture is needed because a Group B strep bladder infections can cause a kidney infection, preterm labor, and birth. During pregnancy, Group B bladder infections should be treated immediately.
Labor is also another reason that white cells might be normally elevated in pregnancy, and they can rise to 20,000 or even 30,000 during a normal labor. To say that white cell count is difficult to manage or understand during pregnancy is an understatement. The baseline number is high and the response to infection is almost always blunted. That’s one of the reasons that women can become so incredibly ill quickly during pregnancy.
Five common infections, which are difficult to treat in pregnancy, include
If you suspect you have an infection or have been exposed to one, it is vital to contact your healthcare provider for safe management strategies.
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