How Would You Know When Your Water Breaks
5 Signs Your Water is Breaking in the 3rd Trimester
What does it feel like when your water breaks, and what does information technology look similar? The experience is different for every pregnant person, but these signs signal that your amniotic sac has ruptured.
As your due date approaches, worrying about your water breaking can basically become a full-time job. You lot might imagine yourself panicking, screaming, and Lamaze breathing equally you white-knuckle information technology to the hospital. Thankfully, though, when you're water breaks, information technology's probable not going to look anything like it's portrayed in Hollywood.
"Water breaking is usually a lot less dramatic than people recall," explains Joyce Gottesfeld, M.D., OB-GYN for Kaiser Permanente in Denver. Some people experience the telltale gush of fluid, while others have nothing more than a slow trickle that resembles leaking urine. So how do yous know if your water broke, and what should y'all exercise subsequently? Nosotros spoke with experts to learn more nearly this sign of budgeted labor.
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Why Does Your Water Break?
To empathise water breaking signs, it helps to know why it happens in the first place. "During a pregnancy, the baby grows within a person's uterus and is contained inside a sac filled with amniotic fluid," explains Ilana Ressler, M.D., a reproductive endocrinologist with RMA of Connecticut. This amniotic fluid cushions your baby, regulates the temperature of the womb, and helps with fetal development. At some betoken prior to delivery, the amniotic sac membranes volition rupture and the fluid will come out of the vagina. This "rupture of the membranes," every bit information technology'southward technically called, is usually referred to equally your water breaking.
Despite mutual misconceptions, just about xv to twenty percent of people experience their water breaking earlier going into labor, says Ashley Brichter, founder and CEO of Birth Smarter, which offers in-person and virtual childbirth classes for expectant parents. It usually happens during labor or commitment. In extremely rare cases, the amniotic sac might never rupture, and the babe can be born inside of it (called "en caul").
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That said, here are the biggest signs that what y'all're experiencing is, in fact, your water breaking.
Credit: Westend61/Getty Images
Sign #1: The Leaking is Uncontrollable
When their water breaks, a person may feel a gush of amniotic fluid, or they might only notice a slow trickle. The corporeality depends on whether you lot have a tear or gross rupture. "If the amniotic sac is rupturing beneath the baby'due south head, then fluid has congenital up and will gush out," says Brichter. "But if the rupture happens higher in the womb, the fluid will take to trickle downwardly betwixt the sac and uterine lining, then the flow won't be as heavy."
In all cases, though, the flow of liquid tin can't be controlled, and you can expect about 2 ane/2 to 3 cups of fluid to empty out of the amniotic sac. You can prevent messes past wearing a panty liner or sanitary pad (never a tampon) or sitting on a make clean towel.
Sign #ii: Information technology's Mostly Clear and Odorless
In full general, amniotic fluid is odorless, although some people detect a sweet scent like semen or chlorine. It's also commonly articulate or tinged pink with streaks of blood.
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Sign #three: You Feel Painless Pressure level or Popping
Some people notice pressure when their water breaks. Others hear a popping dissonance followed by leakage. Neither situation is painful, says Dr. Ressler. "However, contractions may increase in frequency and intensity subsequently the h2o breaks."
Sign #4: Information technology Might Feel Like Leaking Urine
H2o breaking could feel like urinary incontinence, which is common during the third trimester of pregnancy. "People will sometimes say, 'I went to the bathroom in my pants merely the water kept coming,'" says Dr. Gottesfeld. Here's how to tell the difference: Urine has a yellow color and smells like ammonia, while amniotic fluid is usually odorless, says Brichter.
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If yous yet can't tell whether it's amniotic fluid or urine, try this trick from Brichter: Sit downward for several minutes, and then stand up support. If there's still fluid trickling out, it probably indicates that your h2o broke.
Sign #5: It's Not Sticky and Thick Similar Discharge
Significant people may also fault rupturing of the membranes for belch, specially if it'due south trickling out slowly. While both amniotic fluid and vaginal discharge (leukorrhea) tend to exist odorless, the latter is glutinous, thick, and looks similar clear or milky white mucus.
Also take intendance non to confuse water breaking with losing your fungus plug, which is a sign of labor. The mucus plug looks similar bigger chunks of gelatinous, thick, and yellowish-white liquid with a snotty consistency. It may also exist tinged with claret.
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What to Practise When Your Water Breaks
If you're experiencing h2o breaking signs, check in with your md or midwife. They may encourage you to rest at home until contractions progress, says Brichter. However, you'll probably need to head to the infirmary in the following circumstances:
- Your h2o breaks before 37 weeks. If yous experience this premature rupture of the membranes, your practitioner may take steps to delay labor.
- The amniotic fluid smells foul, looks greenish or chocolate-brown, or contains lots of blood. This could betoken fetal distress, or that the babe has passed meconium (the beginning bowel movement), explains Brichter.
- Contractions haven't started within 24 hours of your water breaking, which may necessitate evaluation or consecration with Pitocin. If you wait as well long to deliver the baby, yous could develop an infection that harms the baby, says Dr. Gottesfeld. The doctor may requite you intravenous antibiotics to prevent this from happening.
- You've tested positive for GBS Grouping B Streptococcus. People generally get the test between 36 and 37 of pregnancy.
Source: https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/giving-birth/signs-of-labor/water-breaking-signs-what-does-it-look-and-feel-like/
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