Your doctor may regularly check your cervix at each appointment from here until the baby is born. Your doctor is looking for signs of effacement (the stretching and thinning of your cervix) and dilation, as well as checking to see which position your little one is in.
How are you feeling? At week 35, you should be seeing your healthcare provider at least once a week. You may have been experiencing Braxton-Hicks contractions over the past couple of weeks, so you may be wondering how you can tell when it's the real thing.
Regular uterine contractions are the strongest indication that you are officially in labor! These contractions can feel like menstrual cramps, or even lower back pain; and in early labor, they can be 20-30 minutes apart. Over time however, the time between contractions will begin to decrease. It's time to call your healthcare provider when they are consistently five minutes apart.
You may also pass your mucus plug at this time. This is a small amount of thick mucus that has sealed your cervical canal during your pregnancy. The plug is released as your cervix dilates to prepare for labor. It can come out all in one lump, or over the course of a couple of days as vaginal discharge. This mucus may be tinted with blood, so it could be pink, brown, or even red. There is no need to call your healthcare provider if you pass your mucus plug, but if you start experiencing any symptoms of labor, such as back pain, regular contractions or any fluid of bleeding, you should head to the hospital.
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Have been having vaginal pain
Reply35 weeks no bhc no col
ReplyHad for a full day contractions two minutes apart. They definitely opened my cervix but then slowed down over the next day. Going to the dr tomorrow to recheck where I am up to.
ReplyI have been having contractions at 20 minutes for 2 days now im exhausted
ReplyHaving your cervix checked will not cause you to go into labor. Im pregnant with my 7th child. I have even had my cervix stripped when I was 38 weeks to see if it would bring me into lablor it didnt. It will come when it comes although I want my cervix checked just because if you are dilated and are having contractions you know the time is getting closer. Even more when I am contracting I want to know if it is doing anything.
Reply35 weeks today
ReplyI’m declining them; they really don’t tell you anything, and I don’t want to risk having my waters broken without my consent as I’ve heard happen to so many women. As my childbirth class instructor told us, you could be 50% effaced and 5 cm dilated and not go into labor for weeks, or you could be closed and tight and give birth the next day. My OB said that they also want to check for position, but that can also change just before or during labor. So yeah, it seems pointless to me, too.
ReplyDilated 1cm today @ my 36wk appt…
ReplyI don’t understand why one has to undergo those cervix checks. Labor will start when it starts; you will know. But to have the cervix constantly checked in the last few weeks, won’t that induce labor?
Replyhttp://www.birthologie.com/birth/what-you-dont-know-about-your-cervix/
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