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“Many patients (including me) experienced a sudden release of a water,” says Burroughs. What does it feel like when your water breaks? However, “If you notice that your underwear is saturated or you're experiencing bright red bleeding, definitely let your provider know,” Teen says. Your discharge will probably increase near the end of your pregnancy and it can range from clear, to milky white, and it will be sticky. It prevents infections from traveling up from the vagina to the womb. Vaginal discharge - again, not to be confused with leaking amniotic fluid - is actually very important in pregnancy. Which makes it hard to know sometimes what it feels like when your water breaks.ĭarya Komarova/Moment/Getty Images What does late-stage pregnancy discharge look like? “Vaginal discharge is normally a lot stickier or slipperier, kind of like egg-whites, and amniotic fluid is generally the consistency of water,” she says.Įven though they’re very different consistencies, Teen says it’s definitely tricky to tell the difference sometimes, because an increase in vaginal discharge is very common in pregnancy and sometimes when your water breaks, it’s like a trickle and not a big gush. Discharge is more intermittent,” she says.Īnother way you’re going to be able to tell if your water broke or if it’s vaginal discharge is what the fluid’s consistency is, according to Liesel Teen, a labor and delivery nurse. Patients will commonly report multiple episodes of leakage in a short amount of time. “Once amniotic fluid starts leaking, it is notorious for being continuous. Kelli Burroughs, department chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital. It has to do with the “continuous factor” explains Dr. So there’s a huge difference between amniotic fluid and vaginal discharge - which does typically increase during pregnancy - but how can you tell which is which? It also contains nutrients, hormones, antibodies and other fluids to keep your baby healthy. It is typically odorless and light or clear yellow in color.
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It fills the amniotic sack your baby is growing inside of the entire pregnancy. What’s the difference between amniotic fluid and discharge?Īmniotic fluid is what cushions your baby and protects it while they’re in the womb. Most of all, though, if you are at all worried you may be leaking amniotic fluid, that warrants an immediate call to your health care provider. So really - how do you know the difference between amniotic fluid and regular (and normal) discharge? When should you worry, and what does your water breaking actually feel like? We’ll walk through what’s normal and what’s not.
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Amniotic fluid or discharge how to#
And some pregnant people may even be wondering how to tell the difference between amniotic fluid and discharge, because pregnancy is such a beautiful and magical time, filled with bodily fluids. Big on the sidewalk and screams, “I curse the day you were born!” and then her water breaks on the street? Turns out, most of the time, your going-into-labor moment isn’t going to be like Charlotte’s.
Amniotic fluid or discharge movie#
Anyone remember the first Sex and the City movie when Charlotte angrily points at Mr.
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Thanks to the magic of Hollywood, many of us have come to believe that when people spontaneously go into labor, it’s like a massive gush of water coming out from between your legs at the worst possible moment, and it’s all very dramatic.
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