39 weeks pregnant - just had a sweep - what do these following note mean?

Question

1 and a half cm dialated

effaced

1 cm thickness

2 spines cephalic?

Thank you

Answer 1

Dilated is how many cm *open* your cervix is. You want to be at 10 cm to push the baby out. 1 and a half is a finger tip and a half. (any dilation before labor starts is that much less work you have to do when labor hits, so take it as a blessing!)

Your cervix starts out about 3 to 4 cm long before it starts thinning out or *effacing*. When you have braxton hicks contractions before labor starts, your cervix dilates and effaces a little bit....or a lot if you're lucky! You want to lose all cm of your cervix. To be able to push your baby out, you need to be 10 cm dilated and 100% effaced, meaning 10 finger widths wide (approximately) and your 3 to 4 cm of normal cervix length has become nonexistent. Its thinned out to be paper thin.

If I remember correctly, cephalic means head down and spine matching yours. That just means that your baby isn't breech or transverse (sideways). That your baby's spine is parallel to yours, with its head down in your pelvic cavity...which is where its supposed to be for an easy delivery.

Sounds to me like you're doing extremely well and will be having your baby in your arms before you know it! Congrats :)

Answer 2

not positive, but I'm 37 weeks and last week i was 1 cm dilated, so my guess is that you still have a while to go, but it can happen at any time you may be 100% amd fully dialated in the next few days.  Good luck :-)