What Is a Mucus Plug?

“The mucus plug is a collection of mucus that is lodged and then hardens in the cervical canal during pregnancy," Dr. Jamil Abdur-Rahman, OB-GYN, tells Romper. “As a pregnancy progresses and the cervix begins to dilate, the original mucus plug will often fall out.”

Essentially, your mucus plug is exactly what it sounds like — a “plug” made out of a collection of mucus that is there to protect anything that’s not supposed to be up in the uterus from getting in, such as bacteria that could cause an infection. Typically, when you lose your mucus plug, it will happen as you approach your due date. It can come out all on its own, or be accompanied by bloody show, which will look like streaky blood when you wipe. Both are signs that the cervix (which has a lot of blood vessels that can lead to the bleeding, the same reason you might notice you spot a little after having sex when you’re pregnant) is softening and starting to get ready to open in preparation for the big birthing day.

Believe it or not, you can actually lose your mucus plug more than once. According to Romper’s interview of Dr. Abdur-Rahman, after you lose your original mucus plug, the glands around your cervix continue to produce additional mucus, so it’s possible to lose as many as four mucus plugs before you actually get around to giving birth.

The short answer to this is: Maybe, maybe not. That’s not super helpful, I know, but it’s the truth. Some women may lose their mucus plug at all once, which can look and feel like you’ve just passed a large chunk of snot (gross, but true, sorry!), and others may slowly lose it in smaller pieces, so that they really don’t notice it at all. Your vaginal discharge tends to increase near the end of pregnancy, as your cervix softens and ripens for opening, which can mask the mucus plug being slowly lost. So, there may never be a big “aha” moment when you realize that you’ve lost your mucus plug.

For some women, however, losing their mucus plug does signify that labor is very, very close to starting. For instance, Grace Patton, a mom of six, explains that for her, losing her mucus plug generally tends to signify that labor is about to start.

“This had been a sure sign that labor was impending with the other two kids but I had read enough ‘am I in labor am I in labor am I in labor?? when will I go into labor when will I go into labor when will I go into labor??’ forums with the other two kids to know that plugs can easily reform themselves, and losing it could mean absolutely nothing,” she says of her third pregnancy. However, later that day, her water did break, and she went on to deliver her baby hours later.

Mom of two Christy Wright had a similar experience, after having contractions all night that she wasn’t sure were “real” contractions. “I lost my mucus plug after I got up to pee, which finally convinced me that I might be having a baby,” she describes. “My son was born 12 hours later.”

The “official” answer from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is that, in general, a woman loses her mucus plug a few days before the onset of labor, or right at the onset of labor. So, if you’re near your due date and reaching that point where you want to havethebabyrightthissecondoryouwillloseyourmind (for the record, we get it), you can count losing your mucus plus as a very good sign that the end is in sight.