If your water breaks, lie flat where you are, raise your hips, and call 120; do not walk around and do not bathe
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When your water breaks, do not pack slowly and then leave. The right move is to lie down where you are, raise your hips, and call 120. Walking while standing makes the fluid drain faster, and the cord may come out with it. That is an emergency that can kill the baby.
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- The Beijing Municipal Health Commission’s handling advice: after the water breaks, “immediately find a place to lie flat to stop the amniotic fluid from flowing out,” “do not walk around casually,” and “call 120 emergency services at once.” While waiting for the vehicle, tell family to bring things and meet at the hospital. Medical explainers add why: when a person stands, amniotic fluid is lost faster, and the baby’s umbilical cord may come out with it — cord prolapse, an emergency that threatens the fetus. So lie down, raise the hips; a left lateral position is fine
- Notes
- The three signs that birth is near are regular contractions, show (bloody mucus), and water breaking; water breaking is the one that means “lie down on the spot and call a car.” This is the author’s summary of the two explainers above. An explainer from Shunyi District Maternal and Child Health Hospital says getting out of bed to stand, walk, sit, or squat all make fluid drain faster and raise the risk of cord prolapse. So after the water breaks, do not bathe, do not squat on the toilet, and do not drive yourself. Note the time the water broke and the color of the fluid, and tell the doctor. Fluid that is light green, yellow-green, or even brownish yellow may mean meconium (the baby’s stool) is mixed in. If you feel a cord-like object hanging in the vagina, it may be cord prolapse — call 120 at once, lie flat, and raise the hips. If fetal movement is clearly different from usual, tell the doctor as well
Sources · 2
- 北京市卫生健康委员会. 每周急救话题：准妈妈羊水早破怎样办？ wjw.beijing.gov.cn/bmfw_20143/jkzs/jzjj/20200…
- 北京市顺义区妇幼保健院. 孕晚期在家破水怎么办？ bch-syfy.cn/Html/News/Articles/9453.html