When Will I Lose My Mucous Plug?
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Kaely Harrod 0:01
Hello, welcome back to Kaely Daily. Today's question is when will I lose my mucus plug? This is Kaely Daily, the bi weekly podcast about all things doula Tips and Tits where we answer one question about pregnancy, labor, postpartum, or lactation, in order to have your journey in this parenting world be just a little bit more informed and filled with consent. Hello, and welcome back. I'm Kaely Harrod, your host of Kaely Daily, and also the author and creator of the birth prep group blueprint. I am a mom, a wife and a doula, a childbirth educator, a newborn care specialist, no newborn care educator, sorry. Birth and postpartum doula and love all things education and birth and the intersection of those two topics. So today, we're answering an I am answering another one question. So when will I lose my mucus plug? Now, if you've listened to the How will I know that labor is imminent podcast episode, which was one of the first ones so I will link it in the show notes. Um, you know that the mucus plug, losing your mucus plug does not mean that labor is imminent. Okay. So that's the first thing, you won't necessarily lose your mucus plug and then immediately go into labor. However, in order to answer this question of when will you lose your mucus plug, I want to get into a little bit of what the mucus plug is. And what does it mean to lose it right. So first of all, mucus plug is the mucus that lives in the midst of your cervix at the moment. So if you're pregnant at the moment, your cervix is what we would describe as long, hard and closed, likely. And your mucus plug plugs that cervix so that nothing can get in to the uterus, okay. So it's a protective measure. It keeps you from getting infections, et cetera. And that means that it stays in there, as long as your cervix is long, hard and closed, right. So what often happens as you're nearing labor is that your cervix begins to soften a bit. Now, even if you're not really dilating much, or you're like not in labor yet, you can start to have some softening in your cervix and lose a bit of mucus. Now, you also can have like an uptick in vaginal discharge at the end of pregnancy, and that can sometimes be construed as the mucus plug.
Kaely Harrod 2:41
Now, what I would like for you to know is that I get a ton of mucus plug pictures, which is fine, if you're a client of mine listening to this, I'm happy to get your plug picture. But when I get a picture of a mucus plug, it is almost always about a teaspoon or a tablespoon worth of mucus. Now, I've seen a few mucus plugs come out, like in the midst of an induction for instance. And it's like the whole mucus plug or like you know, most of it or whatever, and it has a lot of mucus like a lot of mucus. And it can actually regenerate fun fact about the mucus plug. So let's say you're 37 weeks, and your cervix softens like the tiniest bit, right? And you lose like a tablespoon of mucus and you're like, oh my gosh, I think I'm gonna go into labor. Now, what that will do is help you help kind of light a fire under you to prepare anything that's not prepared, right? pack your bag, make sure that things are in order for you to have the baby, et cetera, et cetera. That does not mean the baby is coming anytime soon. Okay, because your cervix can actually regenerate that mucus. But also, that is not your entire mucus plug. Okay? Now, I don't say this with any kind of judgment, because when I was pregnant with my kiddos, so like 1210, and eight years ago, I also was looking for losing my mucus plug. I did not know much about this at the time. And I was like, Oh my gosh, if I lose like a quarter size amount of mucus, that means my baby's coming out like any second. And that did not in fact happen. Also, with my first he was a very large baby and he I lost my mucus plug, or parts of it really pretty early, like around three to seven weeks. And my provider did a vaginal exam at that same time, because I had lost some mucus plug. And he was like, Oh, you're two centimeters dilated. You're gonna go into labor any day, and I never went. I never, ever went into labor with that enormous baby. And so from a place of bitterness, maybe from a place of commiseration, also know that you can lose your mucus plug in it means nothing And you can also be dilated a bit and it means nothing. Now, it's not true that it means nothing. I mean, he did eventually come. But in his situation, he was also enormous. So that could have had an impact. I don't know, I won't know. But it's not a sign that today is the day, right? It is a sign that your body is ready to get the baby out. Right? So that's a good thing. But I don't want you to have false hope that like, oh, my gosh, it's coming. And so therefore, it is done. So. Therefore, labor is happening. Sorry, my computer gave me a lovely notification. Okay, so that so the answer of when then when will I lose my mucus plug, you could lose it anytime, once your full term. Now, of course, you could also lose it before that if you lose mucus plug before that, it's like likely that your cervix is dilating prematurely, that is worth getting checked out by your provider. But anytime after 36 weeks considered normal, sometimes you lose it, and then you lose little bits of it. And then you still don't go into labor and top 4142. Right. So what I want you to take away from this is it's normal to lose it little by little, and also doesn't mean the labor is imminent. It's also normal to not lose it little by little and go into labor when your cervix is completely closed, and then lose it during labor. Alright, so thank you for attending my TED talk on mucus plugs. And, and the meantime until I talk to you again, please do listen to the episode on what signs are there that labor is eminent spoiler alert, there are no signs but I go into it in even more detail in that episode. And I hope that you have wonderfully educated well informed, consent filled births in the meantime until we need to get these episodes are edited and produced by Kaely Herat as I'm sure you can probably tell, and our amazing music is credited in the show notes as well. So we look forward to seeing you on the next episode, and in the meantime, have wonderful and consent filled births.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
The question of when you might lose your mucous plug is a popular one. In part because it often gets associated with the start of labor, but that’s not always the case. While losing your mucous plug (or bits of it!) means your cervix is preparing for labor it does not mean that anything is imminent. This episode dives into when you may lose it.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Mucous Plug plays a role in keeping germs out of the womb and can slowly leak as your body prepares for labor
You can lose it slowly over many days or weeks before labor starts
RESOURCES
Episode 4:
How Will I Know that Labor is Imminent?
https://www.harroddoulaservices.com/kaely-daily-podcast/episode-4
FREE OXYTOCIN GUIDE:
6 Ways to Increase Oxytocin for Labor Progression
https://www.harroddoulaservices.com/free-guide-6-oxytocin-tips
CONNECT with Kaely on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/Harroddoula/
This podcast is hosted by the Birth Prep Blueprint - comprehensive Childbirth Education for expectant parents to feel calm, prepared and confident about labor and birth. Podcast listeners (that’s YOU!) get 10% off! Use the link below to get that great deal!
https://thebirthprepblueprint.com/offers/884d5a56-9089-4482-a944-6bb7c26c9b04
If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @harroddoula
Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
