...Think about the shape of the uterus. Before labor, the muscle of the uterus is thick evenly around all sides, above, below, behind. As the cervix starts thinning and dilating, all that muscle has to go somewhere – it bunches up at that top. The top of the uterus thickens dramatically the more the cervix opens. During a contraction, at the beginning of labor, check how many fingers you can fit between the fundus (top of your bump) and the bra line – you will be able to fit 5 fingers. As the top of the fundus rises higher during labor, you will fit fewer and fewer fingers. When you can fit 3 fingers, I usually tell mothers they can think about going into hospital as they will find they are around 5cm dilated. At 1 finger, you are fully dilated. (Awesome, huh!)...
check out the whole post/list HERE
I'll for sure be trying this out and encouraging my ladies to give it a go also.
Posts
5 comments:
Cool! That would have been cool to track during my last labor! Fun tip! thanks!
That is a cool tip!
I don't want to go to the hospital too early and as this is a first birth I'm kind of scared of not knowing when to go. So thanks for the tip :-).
What if you're really short or really tall? Would that distort how many fingers you are able to fit?
MJ
I had heard of the 'bottom line' before but not the rising of the fundus. Makes so much sense though! And my mom got to feel my back opening up during my last birth - I could hear the surprise in her voice!
good question about the tall/short...but I guess it's relative...see how many fingers you can fit when closed & go from there.
birthamiracle: love the back opening...I always try to check what a woman's back looks like before/at start of labor as a reference point.
Post a Comment