Going Into Labor: Sequence of Events

Video Transcript

"So you think you are in labor, here are some ways to know for sure if you are in labor or not. The main way to know is contractions, are your contractions getting closer together and are they lasting longer? If this is happening, these are "progressive contractions" and you are in labor. If your contractions are going away when you change positions or move around, if they are not very intense and if they are not really that often, then you are having "Braxton Hicks contractions" and you will definitely to know the difference. Other things that might be happening is nesting, that is an uncontrollable urge to tie up any loose ends, it is a primal instinct. It is something that you really can not control, you might decide you need to clean your house, many times; you might decide just to get all your emails, your mails, everything in order or might just want to put finishing touches on the baby's nursery. Or can have the opposite thing where you just want to be in your house and you kind of want to hold up and just be where you feel safe. Another thing that is happening is "lighting", that is when the baby is dropping deeper into the pelvis. So before lightning happens your baby is up here and then what is going to happen is that baby is going to drop down into your pelvis. How you are going to know that is your going to feel intense pressure on your bladder, so before you felt like you had to urinate a lot, now you are going to feel like you have to urinate all the time. Another thing that is going to happen is "losing of the mucus plug". Here is your cervix right here, it has been nice and closed up for these full nine months, you have got a little plug in here that helps protect the baby, that plug is going to come out. It might look white, it might be clear, it might be pink, it might be bright red, it is going to look mucusy and you might or might not even notice that happening. Other things that might happen is that your water is going to break, it is most likely if your water breaks and you have not started labor yet, that you will start labor within twenty-four hours. Once your water breaks and you are having contractions, your contractions are going to probably speed up and get a lot more intense. The two things that are happening with your body at this time also are effacement and dilation and another thing is station. So your cervix is going to dilate, it is going to start at zero and it is dilate all the way to ten centimeters. Your cervix is going to "efface", that means it is going to get soft and melt away. It is going to start a "zero percent effacement, fifty percent effacement" all the way to "one hundred percent effaced". The last thing that is happening is the baby is getting deeper into your pelvis, this is different than "lightning" and this is measured as "station". This is at "zero percent station" it is relation to your ischial spines on your pelvis, anything above that is minus, anything below that is plus. So you have to be at about "plus three or four" to push your baby out. So those are the signs that labor is happening and if these things are going on with you, guess what, you are in labor."