That Crazy ol’ Mucous Plug

I have been hanging out with some folks that simply have tons of questions regaridng pregnancy and I am stunned at the misinformation that is floating around out there.  One particular thing that seems to be very prevalent is that so many pregnant women believe in the “mucous plug”.  There is quite a bit of mythology surrounding the plug itself, but the main tenet is the belief that if you experience the mucous plug coming out of you then delivery is not very far away and this can either cause elation in the overdue woman or fear in the preterm woman.  Here is the real story.

Think of the cervix as a 2-3 inch cyclindrical tube with a very small canal that opens on one end into the vagna and on the other end into the uterine cavity.  The end of the tube that connects to the uterus is plugged by the bag of water or amnion that is resting up against it, but the end opening into the vagina is always opened or at least partially opened.  The lining of the cervix is row after row of cuboidal cells that secrete mucous all day long.  Because in many women the cervix is closed there is potential that the mucous could build up into a small quantity and then be expelled as it overflows.  Progesterone will make the mucous thick and gum like while estrogen will thin it out and make it more watery.  The point here is that the mucous can go from thick to thin and can come out of the cervix at any time and it is produced by the cervix on a continuing basis.  It is also not indicative of cervical change or impending labor.  There are those that would try to argue that the cervix will release the mucous “plug” when your cervix dilates, but again the mucous is being continually made and mixes with vaginal discharge that increases in amount over the course of the pregnancy.  The combination of mucous and discharge can seem like a large amount and I am sure that some women that have seen this discharge have also gone into labor soo afterwards.  I bet there are many women out there that had their babies hours after watching the news, but we don’t think the news is a sign of impending labor, because it is on every night.

The moral of the story is to take what you hear with a a grain of salt and write it down on your list of questions to ask your doctor.  I hope your doctor has not been bamboozled by the cervical mucous myths and is able to reinforce that you are making mucous and unless there is blood or significant amounts of thin fluid like urine there is nothing for you to worry about