Why does the stomach drop before childbirth and how to understand that this has happened?

Pregnant women eagerly wait for the belly to drop. This sign is considered one of the most reliable signs of the imminent approach of childbirth. How the lowering occurs, why it happens, and how to understand that the stomach has dropped, we will tell in this article.

What's happening?

What women call abdominal prolapse, in medicine, is called the formation of the fetus. In other words, at a certain point in time in a pregnant woman's belly, the baby begins to take a position that will make it as easy as possible for him to pass through the birth canal. The mechanism of the formation of the fetus is determined by nature itself. It usually starts in the middle of the third trimester, along with the large-scale preparation of the female body for childbirth.

For a baby, the birthing process is no easier task than for his mother. He has a difficult path ahead of him, and therefore nature has taken care in advance that the baby is ready for it. The formation of the fetus lies in the fact that the baby's head, if it is in the cephalic presentation, is tightly pressed against the exit to the small pelvis. From this position it will be most convenient for him to be born when the cervix opens completely during contractions.

During childbirth, the baby's movements will also obey the biomechanisms of labor. He will turn the head exactly as needed in order to pass through the birth canal and not harm himself. The biomechanisms of childbirth are also conceived and carried out by nature itself.

During the long months of pregnancy, the fetus grows, turning from an embryo into a real, but still small, person. Together with it, the uterus grows, providing the baby with sufficient space for development. For three trimesters, a woman's uterus grows 500 times in comparison with its original size. The doctor regularly measures the height of the fundus of the uterus - the so-called indicator of VSDM.

With intensive growth, the child rises upward, so the VSDM grows from week to week. And only at a later date, the doctor can draw the attention of the expectant mother to the fact that this indicator froze, and then decreased. This means that the fetus has taken place. From its upper position, the baby climbed down, prepared for birth.

When does this happen?

It is difficult to tell exactly what signals the baby is receiving to begin the journey downward. It is believed that the formation of the fetus is its reaction to changes in the hormonal background of the mother. With blood through the placenta, the baby begins to receive a qualitatively different composition of hormones. As labor approaches, the woman's production of the hormone progesterone decreases, which was responsible for maintaining pregnancy from the very first day.

It is replaced by oxytocin, which is produced by the placenta and pituitary gland, and the concentration of estrogen increases. Changes also take place in the uterine tissue, which is still the abode of the child - its structural cells, myocytes, begin to produce more of a special protein actomyosin, which will allow the cells of the uterus to contract and stretch during contractions and attempts.

Having caught all these changes, the child's body intuitively understands that it is time for him to prepare. Soon everything will change. When this happens, it depends on many factors - on how timely the preparatory processes in the mother's body proceed, how many births a woman had before, in what condition the muscles of the uterus and abdomen are. In primiparous women, the abdomen usually drops earlier - about 2-4 weeks before delivery, sometimes even earlier. In multiparous, the formation of the fetus occurs almost before the very birth - in a week or a few days. Obstetricians are universally aware of examples when the abdomen in the second or third childbirth drops only with the onset of labor pains.

Lowering the baby in the uterus and the uterus itself after 36 weeks during the first pregnancy is considered optimal. If the formation of the fetus occurs before this time, the doctor may suspect the threat of premature birth.

For all categories of women in labor, this condition should not be ignored - a woman should be taken under special control in order, if necessary, to take measures to prevent the birth of a child ahead of time, if possible.

The specified periods are only averaged, average statistical. They cannot be a guide to action for all women in "position". The real term for lowering the tummy of the expectant mother may occur later or earlier, since all women are different. They have different sizes of the pelvis, fetus, different body constitution and the state of muscle tissue. In addition, the child is not always in a cephalic presentation, although in the overwhelming majority of cases he is really located that way.

Diagnostic signs, sensations

Finding out that prolapse has occurred is not as difficult as it seems for pregnant women, especially for those who do not yet have motherhood experience and are expecting the birth of their first child. Visual signs can be noticeable not only to the woman herself, but also to everyone around her. The abdomen changes its shape: if earlier it looked more like a basketball, then after the fetus becomes more like a torpedo melon or a rugby ball, the uterus becomes more oval.

You can determine whether the abdominal prolapse has occurred by carefully examining your own figure in the mirror. The task is greatly facilitated by the fashion of recent years - to take a selfie of the tummy in the mirror at different stages of pregnancy. So expectant mothers track the growth rate of the tummy and keep a kind of photo report. After the fetus has matured, the shape of the belly will be strikingly different, and the belly itself will look smaller in size.

A measuring tape will also come to the aid of the expectant mother. It can be used to measure the height of the fundus of the uterus - this is the highest point, almost under the breast. After lowering the abdomen, these values become less than a week earlier. You can find out about the previous values of VSDM from the exchange card, this indicator is measured at each appointment with a doctor and entered there.

You can also test your assumptions with a simple manual test. For him, a woman only needs her own palm. If it fits between the bottom of the uterus and the lower line of the mammary glands, the belly has dropped and there is no doubt about it.

It is possible to guess about the formation of the fetus by a number of changes in well-being. In later stages, a large uterus with a baby, a placenta, which weighs about 500 grams, with the waters enclosed in the fetal bladder, occupies almost the entire space of the abdominal cavity. As a result of this, the internal organs, which were usually located there quite comfortably, begin to experience significant inconveniences.

The abdominal cavity, unlike the uterus, does not increase or expand during the gestation of the baby. Therefore, the authorities have to make room. The intestinal loops are squeezed, because of which the woman is tormented by constipation, sometimes turning into diarrhea, the accumulation of intestinal gases. The uterus compresses the stomach from below, which leads to the reflux of gastric juice into the esophagus in the opposite direction. Because of this, belching and heartburn develop.

It also goes to the bladder, pancreas and gallbladder. The woman is tormented by frequent urination, the outflow of bile is impaired. The uterus presses on the diaphragm, and this becomes the cause of the development of shortness of breath and heavy breathing, even with the slightest physical activity or a walk.

After omission, a woman experiences relief in the literal and figurative sense of the word. It is easier for her to get out of bed, the work of many organs is restored, which were compressed by the large uterus for several weeks.

Thus, some changes in the state of health and sensation can be attributed to the signs of the formation of the fetus in the uterus.

The diaphragm is released - normal breathing is restored. The woman gets the opportunity to breathe deeply again. Shortness of breath does not go away at all, as it is partially related to the gained weight, but it becomes less noticeable.
The ribs, which somewhat "diverged" due to abnormalities of intra-abdominal pressure, cease to painfully hurt. With the prolapse of the uterus, the child no longer knocks on the ribs with his legs, as it was before, but activity is manifested mainly in the lower abdomen, the movements themselves become sharper and less painful for the expectant mother.
The only organ that does not get any easier is the bladder. The pressure of the descending uterus on it increases, the urge to urinate increases, becomes more frequent.

Symphysitis may appear for the first time or its course may worsen - aches appear in the area of the pubic articulation, which increases with a change in body position, when walking.
Constipation worsens and they have nothing to do with the diet of the expectant mother - the intestinal loops continue to suffer inconvenience.
The gait becomes even more awkward walking becomes harder and harder.

Quite often, at the same time as prolapse, training contractions intensify - short-term and irregular contractions of the uterus. The abdomen becomes "stone", but when the position of the body changes, when taking a warm shower, the No-Shpa tablets, such contractions quickly pass, the uterus relaxes. Such contractions do not indicate the onset of labor, as well as the formation of the fetus.

If the stomach has dropped, there is no need to go to the hospital. Childbirth can begin in a few days or in a month.

If omission does not occur

On women's forums and in doctors' offices, you can often hear the question of what to do if your stomach has not dropped. Does this mean that the moment of onset of labor is postponed, can labor begin if the abdomen has not dropped?

None of the medical obstetric manuals says that the belly of a pregnant woman necessarily drops. There are situations in which prolapse does not occur at all, but labor begins at the expected date or even a little earlier. There is no rigid regularity between the formation of the fetus in the uterus in the "starting" position and how much is left before delivery.

There may be several circumstances in which the abdomen usually does not lower before childbirth.

A woman is carrying a multiple pregnancy. If there are two or three babies in the uterus, it is physically difficult for them to descend to the exit from the abdominal cavity into the small pelvis. The variant of a slight omission, almost indistinguishable visually, is permissible only if the woman is carrying twins, one of which is located above the exit with the head down. If the twins are identical, located inside one fetal bladder, prolapse does not occur at all.

The woman is diagnosed with polyhydramnios. An excess of amniotic fluid in the fetal bladder makes the uterus larger in size, and therefore the baby may well not go down, or it will be almost imperceptible to the expectant mother.
A pregnant woman is carrying a large or giant baby. The estimated weight of the child, according to ultrasound, exceeds 4 kilograms or is approaching 5 kilograms. It will be difficult for such a hero to press his head against the exit into the small basin.
The child occupies an abnormal position in the uterine cavity. He sits on the priest, lies obliquely or across. If the fetus has not turned around before 34-35 weeks, you should not expect this to happen - the chances are scanty. In pregnancy with an abnormal presentation, a planned cesarean section is most often recommended, and therefore the timing of abdominal prolapse does not matter. The belly itself during such a pregnancy does not fall for physiological reasons.

Careful observation of your own condition will help you not to miss the moment of the onset of labor. Regardless of the development of the fetus or its absence, a woman may show other signs of approaching labor - insomnia, diarrhea, jelly-like mucous discharge from the genitals (a sign of mucus plug discharge), increased training contractions, anxiety and increased anxiety, mood swings. An objective sign is the maturation of the cervix.

What to do after dropping

Often women wonder if they need to behave differently after the baby goes down. Medicine for this case has no special recommendations. You just need to remember that this phenomenon is a sign of an imminent birth, and therefore it is worth doing a few things.

Report your observations to the doctor in the antenatal clinic.
Check if all the necessary documents and things are packed in a bag intended for hospitalization in the hospital.

Take all measures to get the best sleep possible - childbirth is not far off, a woman needs to accumulate strength. For insomnia, ask your doctor for a mild sedative to help you fall asleep.

Buy a package of special urological pads - after omission, women often suffer from uncontrolled urine leakage due to pressure on the bladder. Such "leaks" can occur when laughing, coughing, sneezing, and also with little physical exertion. It also becomes very difficult to endure on the way to the toilet, and therefore urological pads will help to avoid unpleasant moments.
After the mucous plug comes off, do not wash in the bath, do not visit the pool and do not live sexually.
Continue to carefully count the movements of the fetus every day, if problems are found, immediately consult a doctor.