Hi everyone my name is Ila Co and I'm a registered Midwife and childbirth education instructor I practice Midwifery in a very large Urban setting in Canada and as the mom to two lovely children this is all familiar to me as a new parent for the second time around in addition to my clinical practice I love educating folks throughout their pregnancies birth and the postpartum and today I'm going to talk to you about the changes going on in your body as you get closer to having your baby so let's get started so let's chat about some of the changes that your body undergoes as you prepare for labor and get closer to the big day so one of the main things you'll notice is baby's head dropping into the pelvis like this which really just means that head is below the top of the pubic bone you might feel a lot of extra pressure downstairs but as a tradeoff a little bit more space up top to breathe another change you might notice is on and off a regular painless tightenings of the muscles in the uterus called Braxton hick or practice contractions this is your body's way of getting ready for the big day or days and it's it's like preparing for any sort of big athletic event you're not going to show up the day of a marathon and hope things go well your body has to prepare for that you might notice that they're a little more intense and frequent at night time when the sun sets or if you're dehydrated so staying hydrated having lots of fluids and a nice warm bath can be really really soothing another big difference at the end of your pregnancy is an increase in your discharge leading up to your mucus plug coming out your mucus plug blocks the cervix and protects your baby from unwanted bacteria traveling into your uterus so this can happen over the course of 1 2 3 days even and if you are 37 weeks or more nothing to be concerned about it means that your body is getting ready that cervix is thinning out getting soft and Squishy and as that process happens the mucus plug has nowhere left to stay and it comes out the consistency can vary a little bit stringy it can hold its shape more and it comes out in bits and pieces generally um and can have tinges of brown pink fresh red mixed in with it as well so if you're 37 weeks or more in the pregnancy and you see that mucus plug come out no need to be cons concerned provided baby has been moving normally throughout the day whatever is normal for your baby if you see any bleeding however you need to contact your health care provider or present to hospital another change that signals that baby is coming very soon is your water breaking this is much more likely to happen with good strong uterine contractions sometimes the water breaks a little bit higher up and you'll have an initial gush followed by light trickling other times it's a bit of a larger gush that comes out usually amniotic fluid has light pink tinge to it like this sample here or is very very very pale straw color or whitish with some Flex mixed in if you see dark brown green very dark yellow we want you to contact your healthcare provider right away or present to hospital sometimes it can be hard to tell if your water's actually broken what you can do is put on a pad and see what collects there over the next 15 20 minutes or so try lunging squatting walking down the stairs having a nice big cough and seeing if there's any gushes that come out if you're ever uncertain if your water's broken or not it's always best to contact your healthc care provider when your water breaks we want you to remember the following acronym coat so C stands for the color of the water and we ask these questions on the phone when you're in the hospital and that's why we want you to remember this acronym so C is for the color pink white very very very pale yellow if you notice that it's brown green or dark yellow that's moonium or baby's first poop and in those cases we need you to come to hospital right away the O stands for odor so amnionic fluid shouldn't really have a smell to it if it has a strong bad smell then you need to again contact your healthc care provider or present to hospital a stands for activity what's your baby been up to is your baby moving normally and what's considered normal for you and your baby at this time finally the T stands for the time so we always want to mark down the time that that water broke because it influences how soon we have to get this baby out if you have swabbed positive for Group B streptococus you will likely need antibiotics so always always always mark down the time the water broke always remember if your water breaks coat C is for color O is for odor A is for activity and T is for time so that brings us to the end of this video I hope you found it informative we have a lot more in this series so please check those out and we'll see you next time time