# 27 weeks and soft cervix?



## NightOwl (Sep 12, 2004)

I'm 27 weeks pregnant with my first. Earlier today I felt some fluid leaking and it seemed too abundant and watery to be normal. So, I called my midwife and she said to come in. She tested and I was negative for amniotic fluid leakage. But she said my cervix was soft. She said I'm probably fine and I was probably just having a lot of discharge, but said I should take it easy and watch for signs of preterm labor. So, my question is...has anyone else had their cervix be soft at 27 weeks? Is this really abnormal?


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## NightOwl (Sep 12, 2004)

eek! No one has replied?! It must be abnormal.


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## bri276 (Mar 24, 2005)

I don't know about my cervix because it hasn't been checked, but I do know I get very thin discharge that I've worried about also. But from what I've read, if it's not enough to at least soak a pad in a day, it's not amniotic fluid, and I've never had nearly that much. Also it doesn't gush out when I stand.
so I guess that doesn't answer your question! but it's possible plenty of people have softened cervix and don't know it because no one's had a reason to inspect it, yk?


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## NightOwl (Sep 12, 2004)

Well the way my midwife talked about the soft cervix is that some women do have their cervix soften and even dialate a little a long time before they have the baby. But it could also be a sign of preterm labor. how annoying is that...it could be comepletely normal or it could be something really bad, but we can't know which.







I guess I was just hoping that maybe some women on here had the same thing and could tell me how it turned out for them.


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## leahdbc (Jan 4, 2004)

My cervix was soft and shortened sometime before 24 weeks. THey felt it was shortened enough to warrent bed rest but I had also had earlier pre-term contractions. I remained on bedrest for much of the rest of my pregnancy and delivered a healthy boy just 10 days before my due date (about a week after coming off bedrest)


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## wasabi (Oct 12, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *bri276*
but it's possible plenty of people have softened cervix and don't know it because no one's had a reason to inspect it, yk?

I was thinking the same thing. I have no idea if my cervix is soft or thinned or anything because no one's been in there.


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## orangebird (Jun 30, 2002)

I think it is common and as long as it is not accompanied by other signs of pre term labor it is nothing to be worried about. Another reason for people to just keep their hands out of there, YK? Think about it, some peole walk around dialated to 4 cm for weeks before they go into labor. That is why I keep people's hands out of my vagina. I don't want to know what is going on in there unless I am in actual real labor. Otherwise it only worries you. Either, like you, I'm already soft/dialating am I going to go into preterm labor? Or nothing is happenning yet? Does this mean I'll never have this baby? I'd rather not know. But if you aren't leaking fluid and not having regular or real contractions then I would file that bit of info way back in my mind. Don't even give it another thought unles you have other symptoms. That is what I would say. Others might say different, but if you hadn't had teh exam you never would have known. How many of us sitting here reading this probably have soft cervixes too. Who knows.


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## NightOwl (Sep 12, 2004)

Well I usually don't have internal exams. I had never had one before and then had my 1st at my 1st prenatal visit with an OB. And that turned out to be a very traumatic experience. That's one reason I went searching for a midwife. I didn't look for one at first because I just sort of assumed that there wouldn't be any in my area. (It turns out that there aren't many!) But I am so happy that I found my midwife and birth center. They are really great. And I haven't had an internal exam there at any time until the other day. But because of that fluid leaking I wanted to be sure it was all ok. So, I let her do the exam so she could do the ph test. It eased my mind a lot to know that it wasn't amniotic fluid. If I hadn't had the exam I would be freaking out even worse! So, I'm glad I had it done.

And I haven't had any other symptoms. So, I'm just taking it easy and hoping for the best.


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## colobus237 (Feb 2, 2004)

I examined my own cervix around 22 weeks after having a few contractions in a row. Got rather worried when I found that it was much higher, softer, more posterior than it had been in very early pregnancy. But, when I described it to my midwives, they said that that was pretty much exactly the set of changes they would expect in a mid-pregnancy cervix. By the end of the second trimester they said they wouldn't expect even to be able to feel the cervix manually. I haven't worried about it (or checked) any more since then.


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## Czen:) (Jul 31, 2002)

An increase in fluids can be very nomal in pregnancy. Last pregancy my midwife gave me litmus papers to carry with me so I could tell if it was amniotic fluid coming out of me or not. The situation was mad foggy because my water always breaks in a leak. Once it took 6 hours for me to realize that my water was leaking. Last pregnancy I had so much vaginal fluids that I thought it broke about 6 times before it actually did. And if I hadn't had the papers to test with I wouldn't have even been sure!

Czen


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## averymybaby (Jun 14, 2004)

*please* keep on top of your fluid discharge and if it continues, demand to go in for the "paper test" to make sure it's not amniotic fluid, repeatedly if you have to. I should have done that with my dd but my midwives kept telling me it was probably not amniotic fluid... when it was.







it can change in a day. if one day it's excessive disharge, the next it can be fluid. that's what happened to me, anyway. just keep an eye on it if it remains so excessive.


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## kroonkles (Jan 20, 2004)

I had a soft cervix too. It was also 20+ wks, can't remember exactly. It was checked because I was having a lot of contractions. I was put on restrictions, but not actual bed rest (well, the first pg I was put on bed rest, but that's another story). I also wondered about how common a soft cervix is, since no one I knew had actually gotten theirs checked so early on. My mw was not too concerned, but the other practitioners I had to see while my mw was on maternity leave, made me much more anxious! In the end, I went off restrictions at 36 weeks and carried to 38 weeks (I actually walked around dilated over 4 cm for 11 days and my labor was super-quick!)

Anyway, that was my experience. Hope everything works out OK for you!


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## loewymartin (Mar 23, 2004)

I had something similar around 25+ weeks with DD#1. I had a rather large fibroid that they were watching via u/s and during one u/s they said my cervix was "funneling" and sent me to my OB to discuss options. He said it might or might not be normal, since they don't ususally do a "routine" u/s at that time. We were told no intercourse, for me not to lift anything etc. and we were warned of potential preterm labor. Well, I went to 12 days before my due date until I actually had her! I was checked at around 37 weeks and was 2cm dilated and 90% effaced, so my OB's comment was that my cervix was just "ready to go" a little earlier then expected. I had a short L&D (water broke, first contraction happened and next was 1.5 minutes later - all total less than 3.5 hours and DD#1 was here).

So, while I would watch the fluid to make sure it's not excessive, and if worried would get the litmus paper, I would just take it easy. Here's hoping it just means your body is getting ready!

Michelle


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## pamamidwife (May 7, 2003)

I agree that a soft cervix at 27 weeks may be really NORMAL for YOU.

Most providers aren't - well, they shouldn't be - doing routine cervical checks on women prenatally, especially not this early. To say what is normal and what is not has a huge margin of error.

I would think that things were fine. You didn't say if this was your first baby or not?


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## NightOwl (Sep 12, 2004)

yes, this is my first baby.

I've been feeling fine since that day.


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