# 1cm dilated and 2cm long?



## Tessykins (Feb 15, 2010)

Hi Kaz and Emily Caitlin, I've yet another question!!  Sorry.   

I had an ante natal appointment this morning (37+1) and the doc gave me an internal - he said that I'm 1cm dilated and 2cm long and wrote same in my notes.  I'm totally baffled as to what 'long' means and I have looked it up on google but can find nothing.  I should have asked but he was doing a lot of checks and I forgot!

Due to borderline high bp they ran a trace on lo's heartbeat which was fine.  During this the graph showed that I was having tightenings, I had this before at last trace but the doc said these contractions were more significant - I couldn't feel them at all though!  I'm just hoping that baby is getting ready to make an appearance.


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## emilycaitlin (Mar 7, 2006)

Hi,

It sounds like you are having Braxton hicks, so your body is starting to get ready for labour. The 2cm long just refers to the length of your cervix, which needs to shorten and start to dilate. If you can picture a balloon, and the knot underneath, that's the cervix being long, and then starting to disappear up to be level with the balloon. Hope that makes sense!

Emilycaitlin xx


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## Tessykins (Feb 15, 2010)

Thanks Emilycaitlin - is 2 cm long favourable for an imminent labour?  I lost what I assume to be my mucus plug about an hour ago (very much snot like and tinged with blood, not a huge amount, which I was expecting, but certainly a fair amount on the toilet paper - sorry for tmi  !)  Since then I've been having mild lower back pain and niggles; I also had some diarrohea (again tmi  )

I'm only 37+2 but I'm really getting impatient now


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## Kaz1979 (Apr 11, 2011)

No unfortunately 2cm long is not favourable for labour. 

But what you've said is promising! 

Kaz xxx


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