is my water broken?

[mummy93]

im 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant and ive been leaking a lot of fluid. i was sitting on an exercise ball and whenever i would get up i would see a lot of moisture where i was sitting. i still feel leaking and when i smelled it it smelled almost like kettle corn...could my water be broken?

[starrlamia]

possible! Amniotic fluid is supposed to have a sweet smell and generally if you are leaking a bunch of fluid it's just that.

You can always have your midwife or doctor test for it, it's a simple little test strip that turns (blue i think) if it's amniotic fluid :)

[tzs]

when mine broke it leaked rather than gushed and to top it off i never went into labor so i was slightly confused for a bit. i couldn;t really detect a smell but the biggest clue was that #1 it kept coming and #2 it would leak out especially when changing position, especially from sitting to standing. 

i would check with your provider (in my case my doula was doubtful...but my OB had me go in) but my guess would be yep, your water is broken.

make sure to use a white pad or towel to catch leaks. it's something that didn't cross my mind so it wasn't until i actually checked myself into the hospital and switched out my colored towel for their white pad that we realized that meconium was present. 

good luck!

[Virginia884]

Just read in "The Birth Partner" this weekend that generally, out of 10 women, 1 will have her water BREAK (gush) before labor, 2 will have leaks (which is what you sound like to me) before labor, and the others will break after labor begins.