How do you know when you've had the show??

[thedogwalker]

I know this is a really silly question and I always thought it would be pretty obvious, but I really am unsure. I am 38+2, and for weeks I've had a clear creamy discharge, sorry for tmi which my MW said was normal. However, tonight, the discharge is the same consistency but is very dark in colour, reddish brown????

Any suggestions of what this may be other than the show

after i wiped it looked like jelly fish on the paper.

nice!

it is a load of jelly like mucus, with fesh blood streaks in it, so bright red or pink streaks, and i got some light spotting of blood just before it came

I had a show the same size and shape as a small jellyfish. I had a slow 'thickening' of discharge for about 2 weeks beforehand...

Totally understand your question, I thought it would be obvious too! I'm exactly 40 weeks today and on sat night thought I'd had the show but now wondering if it was big enough? It was a jelly like lump streaked with brown blood but only the size of a 50pence coin. Had a few period type pains since but nothing seems to be happening.

My 'labour' started with mucus turning brown then red. It varied in quantity and consistency. It went on for about 5 days.

On the plus side, once labour started properly, 1st stage was 6 hours, 2nd stage 1 hour. At home with no drugs, DD1 9lb 12. MWs reckoned a long latent phase allowed for lots of preliminary stuff to go on - baby getting into a good position, cervix starting to efface - so that active labour is often quite quick and straightforward.

That said, blood can occasionally be indicative of a problem so it would be worth calling the delivery suite just to make sure.

Thank you so much for all your replies. I think it may have been wishful thinking for it to have been the show, not really jelly like at all. So I will have to keep on waiting, but at least now I have more of an idea of what to keep an eye out for.

Once again thanks and good luck to everyone