First-time moms may labor longer because they tend to efface before they dilate. But, in later pregnancies, effacement and dilation usually happen together and more quickly. After having already had a child, your cervix is already less firm and more flexible from the delivery of the first child. In the last week or two before your due date, your doctor may make an educated guess on how close you are to delivering based on your cervix.
However, there's no guarantee. Some women have all the signs and don't deliver for a few more weeks. Others have no signs, then they efface and dilate overnight and give birth the next day. As noted above, the cervix needs to become fully effaced in order for the baby's head to move through the vaginal canal and be delivered. You're unlikely to feel your cervix shortening and getting thinner.
However, it may be happening if:. At your prenatal visits near the end of your pregnancy, your doctor, nurse, or midwife will examine you to see if your body is beginning to prepare for labor.
Your health care provider will feel your cervix to check for the following signs:. Once you're in labor, the doctors and nurses check your cervix regularly to keep track of how effaced and dilated you are as you get closer to delivering. Technically, you can check your own cervix , but unless you know what you're looking for, you may want to leave this exam to your doctor. However, if you're a doctor or a labor and delivery nurse, you certainly know what you're doing. And, if you feel comfortable and are used to checking your cervix for fertility reasons , you'll be more likely to recognize changes.
But you can try the following:. Effacement is a natural part of the labor and delivery process. It usually begins on its own when your body and your baby are ready for childbirth. However, if it starts too early in pregnancy or is not starting when a pregnancy is overdue, it can lead to complications. When the cervix is shorter than normal or not strong enough to stay closed during pregnancy, it can begin to efface and open up too early, which could lead to preterm labor or premature birth.
Causes of early effacement include the following:. The doctor can diagnose a short or weak cervix by reviewing your medical and pregnancy history, conducting a physical exam, and doing an ultrasound of the cervix. When effacement and dilation do not happen on their own, the doctor may need to step in to get things moving along.
Understanding effacement is helpful during labor since it makes it easier to follow your progress as you get closer and closer to delivery. On occasion, effacement can start too early and need to be stopped, or it can be slow to happen and require a little help from the doctor to get going. Most of the time, it happens on its own, when your body and baby are ready.
However it happens, the process of effacement, along with dilation, opens the door to bringing your baby into the world. Get diet and wellness tips to help your kids stay healthy and happy. The structure and function of the cervix during pregnancy.
Translational Research in Anatomy. Braxton Hicks Contractions. InStatPearls [Internet] May 2. StatPearls Publishing. Sexual intercourse for cervical ripening and induction of labour.
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. This thinning process is called effacement. In other words, being percent effaced means you are fully effaced. Your midwife or obstetrician can determine how effaced you are with a vaginal exam.
This just means that your cervix has thinned out by 50 percent of what is considered fully effaced. The same applies to all the different degrees of effacement.
Unlike effacement, which is when your cervix shortens and thins out measured in percentages , dilation is the term used to describe the opening or widening of the cervix. To properly understand the meaning of effacement, you need to know a bit about the first stage of labour, which is broken up into two phases, known as the latent phase and the active phase of labour.
Unlike Braxton Hicks, true contractions can be painful, and they occur at regular intervals. However, during the latent phase of labour you may experience contractions stopping and starting, with some bouts lasting a few hours at a time.
The latent phase of labour is also when your cervix starts softening and thinning effacement and opening dilation. This process continues, often very slowly, until you are in active labour, when the pace of effacement and dilation speeds up. Let your midwife know if you start feeling contractions or any other signs of labour , which in the latent phase might include:. A clear, pink or blood-streaked vaginal discharge which could be your mucus plug being ejected.
Late in your pregnancy, your health professional may check the cervix with his or her fingers to see how much it has effaced and dilated. He or she will wear sterile gloves to do this. During labor, contractions in your uterus open dilate your cervix. They also help move the baby into position to be born. As the baby's head drops down into the pelvis, it pushes against the cervix.
This causes the cervix to relax and thin out , or efface. During pregnancy, your cervix has been closed and protected by a plug of mucus. When the cervix effaces, the mucus plug comes loose and passes out of the vagina. The mucus may be tinged with blood. Passing the mucus plug is called "show" or " bloody show. But you might not. Effacement is described as a percentage. After the cervix begins to efface, it will also start to open.
This is called cervical dilatation. Cervical dilatation is described in centimeters from 0 to
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