Signs and Symptoms of Labor
Stages of Labor
Vocabulary
100

What happens to urinary frequency preceding labor?

What is increase in need and frequency of urination.

100
What does dilation refer to?
What is widening of the cervix to allow for the fetal head to pass through the vaginal canal.
100

True or False: A baby's head is built to pass through the vaginal opening from a front-facing position.

What is False. The head must internally rotate before passage can occur through the vaginal opening.

200
What is occurring when a woman says that her "water broke?"
What is the fluid sac around the baby breaks, causing a release of fluid to escape the vaginal opening.
200
What is effacement of the cervix?
What is thinning and shortening of the cervix to allow for easier passage of the fetal head during the first stage of labor.
200
What is an epidural?
What is a form of anesthesia that is administered to mothers in labor both for vaginal and cesarean births that helps to numb the pain of labor without affecting the mother's ability to push.
300
What composes the "bloody show?"
What is cervical mucus release or dropping of mucus plug.
300

What happens during the third stage of labor?

What is delivery of the placenta.

300

What is breech birth?

What is when a baby is positioned feet or bottom first in the uterus

400
What is "lightening?"
What is dropping of the fetal head into the lower pelvis. This prepares the fetus for the first stage of labor.
400

What are the names of the three phases during the 1st stage of labor?

What are the early, active, and transitional labor phases?

400

What is transition?

What is the last part of active labor; can be painful and intense; contractions close together and last 60 to 90 seconds?

500

What are the name of the contractions that occur in the early stage before real labor begins?

What is Braxton-Hicks contractions.

500

What happens during the second stage of labor?

What is the time when the baby is delivered?

500

What is transverse? 

What is when a baby is sideways in utero, lying horizontal across the uterus, rather than vertical (head up or down)

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