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Ask A Childbirth Educator
Questions and Answer

Q.How will I know if my mucus plug has been passed, if I sometimes have a little mucous like discharge anyway?

A. It actually will be rather easy to tell if you have lost your mucus plug. The mucusy discharge that is common in pregnancy is thinner and usually a different color than the mucus plug. The mucus plug literally is a large wad of brownish to reddish-streaked, very thick mucus. There is much more mucus in the mucus plug than in the normal vaginal discharge. The mucus plug can still be stretchy though, but the amount and color is your tip-off to what it is. The mucus plug may or may not come out all at once. It may come out in large copious stretchy amounts or it may come out all at once. Both are normal, and both are obviously different from your usual lubricating vaginal discharge.

Karen Klimsak-Ungar, CCE has been a certified childbirth educator for Birth Works® since 1996. She is currently Managing Editor for the Birth Works newsletter, sits on the Birth Works Board of Directors, and serves on their National Trainee Review Committee. A happily married mother of two, she also continues to teach Birth Works classes as well as private classes.

Karen will answer your questions on fertility, pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and babies. Her advice does not take the place of your practitioner. Personal answers will not always be possible.