If your pregnancy is nearing completion, and several weeks before the expected date, you are seeing increased excretions, it is not necessary to sound an alarm and rush to the hospital.
Allocations before childbirth are normal. As a rule, they are of different types, each of which corresponds to its stage of pregnancy: mucous discharge, separation of the plug and the outflow of water. In some cases, this may be a subtle change, but as a rule, a woman realizes that the moment of birth of her baby is already close. Depending on what kind of discharge during pregnancy you observe before childbirth, you can determine how much time is left before the onset of labor.
Mucous discharge
If you notice before delivery that the usual mucus discharge increased, it means that your body began to prepare for the birth process. Particularly intensive excretions can be in the morning, when you just get out of bed. If watery, clear or white discharge before delivery becomes brown - until birth is very little time.
Departure of the cork
Approximately 2 weeks before the appointed time, the uterus begins to prepare for delivery. The fact is that in the ordinary state it is an elastic muscular organ, and the cervix resembles cartilage rather than muscle tissue. Therefore, to enable the child to be born, shortly before birth, the cervix begins to soften, while contracting and thereby pushing out the mucous plug.
By itself, the separated cork, which previously covered the cervix, is a lump of small mucus. It can come out immediately or for several days, have a yellowish or brown tinge, and also blood veins. In addition, the separation of the plug before delivery can be accompanied by abundant yellowish or pinkish discharge, as well as aching pains in the lower abdomen.
Separation of the mucous plug does not mean that the birth will be right now - the first bouts can begin only after two weeks. But for this period you are not allowed to take a bath, visit the pool and lead a sexual life, as the entrance to the uterus remained open, which means there is a risk of infection of your baby.
If you suddenly notice scarlet blood or an unpleasant smell, then you need to tell your doctor immediately. In the rest, liquid discharge and mucus before birth is not dangerous.
Departure of amniotic fluid
If you could not notice the separation of the mucous plug, since sometimes the allocation is quite scarce, then you hardly miss the passage of amniotic fluid. The rate of outflow of water is from 500 ml to 1.5 liters of liquid. As a rule, these are clear secretions without an odor or with a slightly sweetish admixture. You can also notice white flakes - these are the lubricant particles that protected your baby inside the uterus.
The outflow of amniotic fluid can occur in different ways. In one case, all the liquid can come out right away, in another, such a phenomenon as leaking occurs. All this depends on where the rupture of the surrounding bladder occurred - near the entrance to the cervix or above.
Anxiety before giving birth causes yellow and green discharge. Ambulatory waters of this color may indicate that your child lacks oxygen, fetal discosition or premature detachment of the placenta.
If you notice strong bloody discharge, discoloration and odor of amniotic fluid, then you do not need to get to the hospital yourself - immediately call for an ambulance.
In any case, the outflow of water means the beginning of the birth process. And even if you still do not have contractions, you need to seek medical help, because your baby is ready to be born.