How to Know if Your Water Broke — Episode 076

Today we’re talking to tell if your water broke. Towards the end of pregnancy things can get very confusing “down there”. For instance, it can be easy to confusing your water breaking with leaking urine. So, let’s untangle it.

Please remember this episode is for entertainment purposes, and at no point you should you take the advice in this podcast over the information your provider gives you.

This episode was inspired by my Is My Water Broken Quiz (which is super handy also).

Big thanks to our sponsor The Online Prenatal Class for Couples In there, we dive deep into your water breaking, and I give you a no-fail equation to when you should head to the hospital that families just love!

How to tell if your water is broken

In this episode

When your water breaks remember:

• Color
• Odor
• Amount
• Time

Puppy pads to put on your bed/couch, etc

Other things that might interest you

My are you in labor quiz.

Producer: Drew Erickson

Check out my other pregnancy podcasts:

Transcript

[00:00:00.355] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys, welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast today on Episode 76, we’re talking about something that sounds like it’ll be so clear, like are you ever clear on if your water is turned on or off at the kitchen sink? But like everything, our bodies make things very confusing. Let’s untangle it.

[00:00:27.065] – Hilary Erickson

Welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast, I’m Hilary, your curly headed host on the podcast, where we untangle everything from pregnancy, parenting and home routines. I want you to know that there are no right answers for every family. And I find that simplifying my priorities is almost always the answer. It’s tangled just like my hair.

[00:00:52.275] – Hilary Erickson

Kyrgyz, before we jump into the podcast, I would just ask you, if you subscribed, a lot of people end up listening to this when it is on my blog, and you can be notified of every single episode of you, especially if you have a favorite podcast player. Just jump in there, put in the Pulling Curls Podcast and it will just notify you of every episode. And they’re all super helpful, just like this one. And of course, if you are headed over to Apple podcast, it helps so much if you leave a review.

[00:01:17.355] – Hilary Erickson

The Sweatpants Princess left me one earlier this year. She said, informative and fascinating. I’m really enjoying this podcast. She’s peppy and informative and I will be recommending it to other preggers for sure. Thanks so much, sweatpants princess, and thank you for your reviews.

[00:01:33.495] – Hilary Erickson

This episode of the Pulling Curls Podcast is sponsored by the online prenatal class. For couples, it simplifies understanding labor so you can have a more relaxed pregnancy and birth taught by a highly experienced labor and delivery nurse and can be done wherever you are, whenever you want. No more arranging busy schedules to fit in a prenatal class, say 15 percent. With the coupon code untangled, you can find out more at Pulling Curls Podcast and the menu under courses or in this episode, show notes.

[00:02:02.545] – Hilary Erickson

And now a word from our lawyer, Hilary is a nurse, but she is not your nurse. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. Please take the advice of your provider who understands your needs and circumstances.

[00:02:15.565] – Hilary Erickson

Thank you.

[00:02:17.695] – Hilary Erickson

OK, so just like I said in the intro, it sounds like it would be really clear, right? Like I have had a couple of posts go wild on Pinterest about this. And people are always like, obviously your water is gushing out of your body. How could that not be clear? But those people have clearly never been in labor. So when you’re later on in your pregnancy, sometimes your whole pregnancy, your discharge just changes. It can be more watery.

[00:02:41.755] – Hilary Erickson

It could be a different amount. It can just be damp down there. It could be, in fact, moist. Sorry, guys, but it’s true. So let’s talk about what water breaking is. So you have an amniotic sac and when it ruptures, you got to think of it as basically a water balloon. That’s the only thing we can picture as it when it ruptures, it can rupture at any point in that balloon. Right. So if it ruptures towards the top of your uterus, you know, maybe only a little bit will leak out, which can be super confusing.

[00:03:09.175] – Hilary Erickson

But if it breaks at the bottom, then a lot leaks out. But sometimes when your water breaks, the baby’s head slides in and kind of cork’s it off. So at no point is your body going to make this clear cut sometimes. Sometimes it’s very clear cut. And those women know. But a lot of women are like maybe. And sometimes those people leak to you a little urine and sometimes those people’s water is broken. So as a nurse, it’s sometimes hard to tell as well.

[00:03:31.795] – Hilary Erickson

I will give you a very telltale sign as we get to the end. But if your water breaks, you want to remember Cote? That’s what I always say in my class. But then I was on Tock and you could also see Taco, Cote and Taco have the same letters. Why didn’t I say Taco all along? But we’ll go with coat because I’m a professional. OK, so color is the seat and coat that means. Is it clear, is it, does it have some blood in it that would clear it or a little bit of blood is both very normal or kind of some white chunks.

[00:04:00.745] – Hilary Erickson

I hope everyone’s eating lunch while they’re listening to this. All those are very normal. If it comes out and it’s a brown or greenish, you definitely want to call your physician because baby can poop inside. That’s not unusual, but it’s just something we all want to be aware of at the time. And if you don’t know, you think your water is broken, but you’re not really sure, just slap a pad in your underpants and walk around for a little bit and then you’ll know at least the color because hopefully your pants white.

[00:04:23.665] – Hilary Erickson

OK, second one is odor of coat. So I know a lot of people are like I tried to smell it to see if it was urine. And I have to say that unless you’ve smelled a lot of amniotic fluid like yours truly, it’s really hard to differentiate a friend of mine who teaches prenatal classes, she said that it smells kind of like a public pool because it’s a little bit chlorine smelling and a little bit smelly. It’s hard to say.

[00:04:44.245] – Hilary Erickson

Fun fact. Did you know that your amniotic fluid is actually baby P? Some of it is made by your uterus, but most of it is made by the baby and their kidneys. So as your blood goes, the kid, the baby and the baby has its own blood flow going through its body. Its kidneys siphon off extra fluid just like it will do when the baby is out. So, yeah, baby, as a note, Alpay, as it comes out, is sterile.

[00:05:06.955] – Hilary Erickson

It’s the body that makes it unsterile. So, yeah, it’s still clean. Don’t get Grosseto amount is the A and coat or Tuko. And as we said before, it really depends on where it breaks. So you can get a giant gush or you can get just kind of a little trickle. So all of those are normal. But it’s these are the things you kind of want to know so that you can tell your provider when you talk with them.

[00:05:26.515] – Hilary Erickson

And then T is time. You do want to kind of just note what time about it was. I don’t need like seven. Thirty six and 13 seconds if you’re just like oh around seven thirty six thirty whatever. That’s plenty of information for us just because what’s your water breaks. You got to think that your uterus has been encapsulated so that baby is in a bubble, water breaks, baby is not in a bubble, which means that the bacteria in your vagina can travel up to baby, which can be problematic.

[00:05:50.665] – Hilary Erickson

This is, of course, why we try and limit vaginal exams once your waters broken. So we’re a little bit more careful about bacteria getting up there after your water is broken. So, yeah, it’s just something to know. That’s why when you come in, if your water is broken, we’ll take your temperature pretty frequently and it’s just something that we watch for. It can also be a reason that doctors kind of put you on the clock.

[00:06:08.845] – Hilary Erickson

So normally when your water breaks, you start to have contractions after. In fact, usually you’ve had contractions before. You maybe just haven’t noticed them, but they can become stronger after your water breaks, but not always. And so sometimes if you come in, your water breaks in, your uterus is doing absolutely nothing. They’ll give you four to 12 hours depending on the provider until they really want to start some pitocin. So just something to keep in the back of your mind.

[00:06:30.205] – Hilary Erickson

OK, so what do you do when your water breaks? Honestly, most often it’s a natural thing, especially if it happens at home. But every so often there can be a couple of problems, one being that it’s really bloody. And if that’s the case, then you need to call your provider. If it’s really, really bloody, you need to call 911. The other thing is that there is a possibility that the cord could slip out very, extremely rare if your water breaks at home.

[00:06:51.565] – Hilary Erickson

It happens more often in the hospital where the provider breaks your water side. Know most people have the provider break their water. It doesn’t break at home. So that’s another tidbit of info. So you may just want to do like a quick finger check on the baby exit area, watch your water breaks, I do believe that if the cord slipped out, you would know it. But yeah, but if nothing’s down there, then you’re good to go.

[00:07:09.925] – Hilary Erickson

You can take a shower, put a pad on you, kind of take your time. I would call your provider just to let them know. And if you have any questions of did my water break or not, you can definitely call your provider about that as well. So don’t feel like you need to just hem and haw it over at home. Another thing you could do is if your doctor’s office is open, a lot of them carry the test that we use in the hospital, which is called Amisure, which can give you kind of a pretty good idea.

[00:07:31.585] – Hilary Erickson

I mean, I hate to say that anything’s 100 percent, but it is as close as we can get to 100 percent to know if your water broke or if it’s some other fluids leaking out of you. So it’s called Amnisure we can do it at the hospital. A lot of doctors have it in their office. Some of them have maybe Niazi paper, which is what we used to use when I did labor and delivery earlier. It’s not quite as accurate, but it’s still pretty good.

[00:07:50.395] – Hilary Erickson

And it might give you an idea of it’s likely just, you know, your water breaking or pee. OK, so a lot of people come in and they’re like, I’m sure my water broke, I had a gush. And then I go, oh, did it keep going? No. And then usually in the back of my head, I go, Oh, it’s probably probably not their water broken. It could be, I’ve been wrong before, but usually when your water’s broken, you’re going to get a gush and then it’s going to keep coming out.

[00:08:12.085] – Hilary Erickson

So as you sit down or stand up, you’re going to notice small gushes when those things happen, because as you can imagine, it starts to pool kind of in your vaginal opening as… As you know, you’re in a certain position. And then when you change positions, the water comes out. Now, if you’re like, did I pee or did I break my water? Very valid question. One thing you can do is try and cough, do a Kagle ahead of time and see if more comes out.

[00:08:33.445] – Hilary Erickson

Usually when people cough, more comes out. You can stand up against, of course, with both of those things if you have a bladder leakage problem to start with, those both of those things kind of make your bladder overactive so you might leak when you cough or get up either way. Another thing that I, I see patients do really frequently is when they’re on the bed and you lift your hips up. So you’re going to plant your feet and lift your hips up off of the bed.

[00:08:55.885] – Hilary Erickson

A lot of times fluid comes out, then I think that’s because you’re just changing how the baby’s head is positioning against the cervix. So that is another way to tell, because that isn’t a time that you would normally have bladder leakage like it would be if you coughed or something like that. So that is a way to tell. That is the 411 on water breaking. It… Again, normally doesn’t happen, although I do recommend that if you’re towards thirty eight, thirty nine weeks, you keep a towel in your car just in case.

[00:09:21.775] – Hilary Erickson

And we always made sure that we had a waterproof mattress pad on our bed the whole time. But if you’re getting towards the end of pregnancy and you don’t have a waterproof mattress pad on your bed, I would probably get one because nothing would be worse than it, like completely ruined your bed. And you could also even get those puppy pads like the bed. Or, you know, if you’re on the couch for an extended period of time, there’s no reason why you might not want to protect your upholstery from this, because it could happen.

[00:09:45.445] – Hilary Erickson

Most likely won’t. And those puppy pads could come in handy with a baby anyway. We use them.

[00:09:49.735] – Hilary Erickson

If we have tiny pukers at our house, a lot of times we’ll put those on the couch. Just Stinky’s anyway. Water breaking. Hopefully this episode was helpful. If you guys have any questions, follow it up in the show notes at Pulling Curls Podcast. This is Episode seventy six.

Thanks so much for joining us today. I hope we help smooth out a few of the snarls in your life. We drop an episode every Monday and we always appreciate it when you guys share and review. Until next time, we hope you have a tangle free day.