Most often, your water won’t break until you’re well into labor (it happens prior to the onset of labor only about 8% to 10% of the time). Still, the fear is real that you won’t know the difference between water breaking vs. discharge vs. urine. If you experience a watery discharge or feeling of leaking, these simple steps can help you determine if your bag of water has broken. Normally, you won’t experience such a huge gush that everyone near you would need to worry about getting their shoes wet (like you might see on TV). If your water does break, it’s usually just a matter of your underwear being wet. If you’re away from home, you’ll probably want to get home now if you can. There you can take a closer look to see if your water has really broken or if you are leaking urine (it happens, and is very normal), or just experiencing a heavier-than-usual flow of normal vaginal discharge. During this half an hour, spend time gathering your thoughts. Are you packed and ready for the trip to the hospital? Do you need to call anyone, such as your partner or doula? Try to do a fetal kick count or make note of your baby’s movements as well. You can also use the time to take a quick nap. At the end of the time, get up and check to see if the pad is wet or dry. A dry pad means that your water is most likely not broken. What you experienced could have been an increase in vaginal discharge or a small leak from your bladder. Smell the fluid. Does it smell like urine? If it smells like urine, it probably is urine. Bladder control issues are not uncommon in pregnancy. If it smells like bleach, it is more likely to be amniotic fluid. Normal vaginal discharge is odorless. The other test is to take a small sample of fluid and look at it under a microscope. When amniotic fluid is dry, the pattern it makes on the microscope slide looks like a fern plant and is therefore called ferning. Thus, if they see ferning, your water has broken. If your water has not broken, you will be sent home to await the start of labor. If your water has broken, you may be checked into the hospital or birthing center right away, or you may be told to go home until your contractions begin.
