I remember a particularly awkward see from my preparation, where a very pregnant woman arrived at the infirmary in wet formal attire. While dancing to "Have a Chance on Me" by ABBA at their sister's wedding, their water broke right in that location on the dance flooring. Several other members of their family and wedding party had excitedly followed them to the hospital, thinking the family would experience a wedding and birth on the same night. Later a thorough exam, I realized that their h2o was not cleaved. I then had to delicately explain to the patient and their extended family that they actually had just peed.

While a woman's water breaking ever seems obvious on TV, in existent life, it tin sometimes exist hard to tell whether your water broke, you peed yourself, or you simply lost your mucous plug.

Equally the baby grows within the uterus, it floats in the amniotic fluid, which is a clear liquid – the consistency of water. Think of the baby growing in a giant water airship, where the "h2o" is amniotic fluid and the "membranes" are the airship. Many women moving picture labor starting with a cascading gush of amniotic fluid, just simply in viii% of labors will the water break before contractions commencement. And when water does interruption, information technology'south not always dramatic: Sometimes the water balloon doesn't burst completely and a "irksome leak" happens. Motion picture poking a hole in a balloon with a pin and water continuously trickling out until is empty. No river of fluid, just a confusing trickle than can be difficult to distinguish from vaginal discharge or urine.

Yous would think it would be adequately obvious if a water airship broke in your pants, but in that location's a lot going on in that region during the final months of pregnancy that can brand the situation confusing. Your bladder is attached to the front role of your uterus, so as the uterus grows, the position of the bladder gets distorted. The infant's head also pushes on the bladder as information technology begins to drib in the birth canal. Additionally, the pelvic muscles that help you lot control your urine are oft weakened during pregnancy; so nigh women have more than problem controlling their urine in the second and tertiary trimesters. This combination leads to a lot of urinary incontinence during pregnancy especially in the final weeks of pregnancy when baby's noggin starts headbutting the bladder.

Many pregnant women take significantly more vaginal belch toward the cease of pregnancy, often so much that they need to wear a pad, and this discharge can create enough wet to exist confused with amniotic fluid. In the last weeks of pregnancy, equally the neck starts to dilate, it volition brainstorm to secrete mucous also. Sometimes this comes out in a large chunk that is ofttimes referred to every bit a mucous plug, other times it volition come out every bit small amounts in regular intervals. Vaginal discharge and mucous are typically white or yellow, and while they tin can be heavy at times, they are usually not clear and continuously leaking similar amniotic fluid.

When my patients call to tell me they have a pocket-sized corporeality of leaking and are unsure if their h2o has broken, I tell them to fully empty their float and thoroughly dry off their external genitals. After everything is dry out, I take them sit on a fresh towel for a half hour. If their h2o has cleaved, the fluid will usually go along come out getting the new towel at to the lowest degree a little wet. If the towel is completely dry out for 30 minutes, then it'due south more than likely that the leaking was urine or discharge. If yous want to get a piffling more than scientific at home, yous tin endeavor to test the mystery fluid with pH paper (amniotic fluid will turn it blueish, while vaginal belch volition turn information technology yellowish). But this can be tricky because urine and amniotic fluid have a like pH. There is also an over-the-counter examination in the class of a special panty liner that has been shown to diagnose ruptured membranes accurately about 95% of the fourth dimension.

If you lot have any doubts if your h2o could be broken, you should contact your provider and be evaluated. The longer your h2o is cleaved, the higher the chance that bacteria could enter the uterus and maybe causing infection in the infant, especially if the membranes accept been ruptured for several days. Your provider will often perform a exam where they gather fluid from the vagina using a speculum. The examination involves looking at your cervix to see if any fluid is coming out and if information technology'south thick like mucous or more like water/amniotic fluid. Then they exam the fluid's pH and expect at the fluid on a slide nether the microscope. Amniotic fluid has a high common salt content (I got splashed in the face up once and accidently discovered that information technology tastes like coconut h2o. I can no longer potable coconut water), and when information technology dries the fluid looks like the branches of a fern. Alternately, you doctor can perform a test in which a swab is placed in the vagina then sent to the hospital lab for testing, usually getting back results within an 60 minutes. Both of these options are virtually 95% accurate. The level of amniotic fluid tin can also be checked by ultrasound, but if it's a pocket-size, early on leak, the fluid will sometimes still look normal.

What happens if you are in the 5% where the test is wrong? Well-nigh of the time once the water is broken, labor will start within 24 hours, but occasionally it will non, and this can put the baby and mom at increased chance of infection. If you have a continuous watery belch, then follow back up with your provider. If it's a tiny leak, sometimes the tests are inaccurate initially.

When your h2o breaks, most of the time it is an obvious river of amniotic fluid that continues to period. If you aren't quite sure if information technology might be urine or discharge causing the incident, and so effort my towel trick; but if in that location is any uncertainty, follow upwardly with your provider for a more official test.