Do I even HAVE a mucous plug?

[SiobhanAoife]

I'm only 1cm dialated, but my MW was able to get a finger inside and do a bit of a sweep of membranes (my BP is high and I'm fighting off a medical induction right now, a couple days past my due date). I was wondering afterwards: If she's gotten a finger all the way up in there and poked around, does this mean that I don't have a mucous plug keeping things all sealed up?

I never noticed losing it. Just wondering! Bodies are strange.

[leurMaman]

You do have one, but sometimes you can lose them before you go into labor. They don't always come out waxy and hard - sometimes they just sort of melt and come out like blood-tinged wet mucus or even just mucus. I never, never saw my mucus plug in my two previous labors - not even a tinge of pink or blood.

[Baby_Cakes]

I didn't have any bloody show or lose any mucus until I was in active labor! It just sort of fell out in glops! FWIW, my mw checked me at 2 cm and still no blood. Every body is different.

[janasmama]

Both times I've always had mine come out during active labor also...sometimes after 4 or 5cm, maybe even later. It came out in a few big globs.

[Bee21]

Same here. Never saw a speck of blood or mucous plug (or anything else) until hours after my water broke.

[crosscat]

Mine is mostly gone as of my last visit on Tuesday. It's been coming out a bit at a time, and could easily be mistaken for extra/heavy discharge, I would think, if one were expecting a more waxy thick plug-like substance.

[ibusymomto5]

With past babies I've lost mine over the course of a couple of days before labor hits, and it's always been after having pretty strong prelabor contractions.

This time I didn't lose anything until labor began. At first it was brownish with just a little blood streak, but then as labor progressed it kept coming and coming till the end with lots more blood. I couldn't believe how much there was this time!