A lot of women want to know how it’s going to feel when their water breaks, and how do you tell the difference between your water breaking and peeing your pants. If you have peed your pants during pregnancy you wouldn’t be the first or the last pregnant lady to do it, so don’t feel bad. This is a really good question because it’s hard to tell. The bottom line is that if you feel like your water’s broken, the only thing that you can do to find out what it is for sure is to go into the hospital and get checked out. There are tests that the nurse or doctor can do that tell us if the fluid leaking is actually amniotic fluid or not. What makes it hard is that a lot of times when the water breaks the baby’s head is acting like a good cork and preventing a lot of fluid from coming out at once, so you may just see little, uncontrollable trickles here and there. If you just had an uncontrollable trickle, then go to the bathroom and empty your bladder and put on a pad or a pantiliner and if you continue to have leaking over the next 30-60 minutes, or even if it happens hours down the road and it’s just unusual and you’re not sure what’s going on, get checked out and don’t delay. Whether you’re contracting or not, go to the hospital and get checked because if your water is indeed broken, then intervention is warranted. You probably heard that the vagina is full of bacteria and, most of the time, this is good bacteria and it’s part of the body’s defense system that keeps bad bacteria away. But it’s only good when it’s in the right place and so the amniotic sac acts as a barrier between the inside and outside world, and once there’s a breach in that barrier, or the water’s broken, then this bacteria can migrate up inside the uterus and infect the mother and the baby. So this speaks to the importance of getting checked out, and if you’re leaking, don’t sit at home for hours and days and wait to see what’s happening next. Go in and get checked out. If you have more questions in the future for me, feel free to ask them on our Facebook page at facebook.com/IntermountainMoms and recommend us to your friends and family too

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