I got it wrong and I’ve had three kids. I tried guessing average baby head circumference and divided by pi, but either that’s not the way to do it or my guess was off. It’s been awhile.
During the event what you really want to know is when you’ll go to the delivery room (if that’s the way it’s still done) and when will it be over. Counting down with centimenters doesn’t really give you either, it just reassures you that progress is being made. The measurement that you want isn’t a number - it’s the word ‘crowning’. And sometimes that countdown can go: 2 – 3 – 4 – crowning!
I know, but I’ve had a kid. I had no idea before my first pregnancy. (I also never really watched a bunch of medical drama shows, so.)
I definitely didn’t know before having the first kid that you could totally be dilated 3cm (and more!) for days on end before having enough contractions that you needed to go to the hospital.
I told my husband recently that someone we know who was having a baby was 4.5 INCHES dilated before she went to the hospital. Obviously just a brain fart on my end with respect to the units – and I certainly did get a pretty incredulous look from my husband: “umm… that’s quite a lot… wouldn’t she have had the baby by now, in that case??”
Did you watch Star Trek: The Next Generation? Do you remember Lieutenant Worf saying “congratulations, you have fully dilated to ten centimeters. You may now give birth.”
I thought that would have come up in this thread before now. Or did it? I skimmed.
Women need to be taught that fact just as men do. The fact that women have more personal interest in knowing such a fact and thus might be more motivated to find it out prior to giving birth than a man would is largely irrelevant.
For the record - a woman who has never given birth, and couldn’t answer the question to save her life. I’ve just never needed to know that fact.
Female, no children (yet). It’s 10cm, of course. I’ve probably heard this fact 150 times in books, movies, and TV shows so it’d be hard not to know it.
Childless male. I hadn’t a single solitary clue until I read this thread.
And come to think of it, I guess I never have watched many medical procedural shows. No ER, no Scrubs. MASH when I was younger is about as close as I get ;).
I was hoping for the “I haven’t got a clue” option in the poll. I wasn’t going to bother to guess, and I’ve seen the answer now. But I fully admit I didn’t have any idea.
You got it right. And yeah, it does open up to that, or roughly that. It doesn’t do it alone, of course. First the pressure from the baby’s head opens it some, like the foot of your sock when you push your foot down in there. Then the uterus conctracts, and sort of pulls the cervix up and open.
It’s really hard to describe, but very obvious when you see an animation of it. The part you see pulling back around the 20 second mark is the cervix. The hole where the cervix isn’t is the hole we’re talking about getting to be about 10cm across. [spoiler]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odS3heDlshA[/spoiler]
ETA: Added a spoiler box to 2 click the link. That video is animated and safe for work, but as soon as that video ends, decidedly NSFW ones pop up on preview.