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Tricia Brockway, a labor and delivery nurse [3] whose mission is to empower women through information, recently drummed up a dilation chart [4] that's easy to understand. In an enlightening Instagram post, she used food items to illustrate how open your cervix is [5] throughout labor, further confirming that people who give birth are the definition of badass.
"Just in case you are like me and are a visual learner, here you go!" she captioned her post, adding important background info: "During labor, the cervix opens to make room for the baby's head to descend into the vagina from the uterus . . . Cervical dilation is the concrete proof that you are in fact, in labor. Cervical dilation happens at a pretty predictable pace MOST OF THE TIME!"
Trish also broke down the concept for people who haven't experienced the beauty of childbirth [7] just yet. "In early labor, the cervix is essentially warming up for the big game," she explained. "It's softening and shortening and getting ready to open. The process of softening and shortening takes much longer if it's your first baby. For those of us who have already had a baby, it can happen very fast and all at once. Typically, once you get to five centimeters, you will most often dilate at least a centimeter an hour."
Phew, talk about a telling visual. We guarantee you'll never be able to look at a bagel the same way again.
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