The number doesn’t indicate when labor is going to start, but it gives us a little reassurance things are moving forward. Some women are about two or three centimeters dilated when they start to go into labor, however you may not be dilated at all or sit around for weeks at four centimeters. Most of these things occur prior to the onset of labor. Ten centimeters, the width of a bagel, is how much the cervix needs to dilate to pass over the baby’s head. One centimeter is the size of your fingertip, two centimeters the width of a penny and four centimeters is the size of a Ritz cracker. The cervical opening starts out like a dimple and gradually opens. What happens with dilation? Visualize the mini-donut again. The "mucous plug" can actually reaccumulate! This usually does not have much clinical significance. As dilation slowly starts, you might lose a collection of mucous sitting at the inside of the cervix, up by the baby. Usually the last thing to happen is cervical dilation. A cervix that is 50 percent effaced is about 1 inch thick, while 100 percent effaced means it is paper thin. The cervix has to thin out or “efface.” I think of it like a mini-donut that starts out about two inches thick and slowly thins out. This is referred to as the position of the cervix. Next the cervix softens, going from a consistency similar to the tip of your nose to soft and squishy like your lips.Īs the uterus practices contracting, the cervix moves from behind the baby’s head to forward on top of its head, closer to the opening of the vagina. This can happen from a few days or even just a few hours before the onset of labor. The head “drops” into the pelvis by a couple centimeters. One of the first subtle signals a pregnancy is nearing its end is when the baby settles into the pelvis, also known as engagement. Many things need to happen before it’s “all systems go.” When a cervical exam is preformed your provider is looking for more than dilation of the cervix. The truth of the matter is a number really doesn’t predict the arrival of a baby. that somehow a number means the time is near. One frequent request is to have a cervical exam…. Is that a contraction? Did I feel a trickle? I swear I lost my mucous plug! All signs that baby might be on the way.Įach week during an office visit with their Methodist OB/GYN, many soon-to-be moms look to us for a sign things are getting close.
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