Pregnancy: Terms & Vaginal Exams

Terms to Know

• Pregnancy Terms to Know
• Labor and Birth Terms to Know
• For Round Three maybe try to find more about medications used during labor and birth to be prepared.
• Learned from round two that it's normal to be give pitocin after you deliver to help contract the uterus.

4 Things Measured During Vaginal Exams

1)  Dilation of the Cervix

• Measures how many centimeters the cervix has opened.

2)  Effacement of the Cervix

• 100% means the cervix has completely thinned because the baby's head has dropped.
• Dilation and Effacement Diagram

3)  Presentation

• Describes the baby's position.
• Occiput (back of the head or skull of the baby)
• Anterior (nearer the front of the mother's body)
• Posterior (nearer the back of the mother's body, toward her rear or hind end)
• Right and Left (of the mother)
• Spinning Babies is a really helpful resources with instructions on how to change baby's position.

4)  Station 

• Tells how far the baby has moved down the birth canal.
• Negative is above the pelvis and positive is below it.
• Zero position means the head is engaged and has entered the vaginal canal within the pelvic bones.
• +5 means the baby is crowning.