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Has Your Baby Dropped?
A Look at What Happens During the "Lightening" Phase of Pregnancy
By Renee Roberson
When Wendy Beckman walked into the hospital to deliver her first child in 1990, she was two weeks overdue and carrying a very large baby. Beckman's doctor had scheduled an induction, but a nurse stopped Beckman on the way in and told her she couldn't be ready to deliver, because the baby hadn't dropped yet.
Beckman, however, had been keeping close track of the position of her baby bump. "I said that I had dropped because only then could I fit my fist between the mound on my abdomen and my also expanding bust," says Beckman, a Cincinnati, Ohio, resident who went on to deliver a 10-pound baby. "I told her that two weeks ago, I couldn't even get a finger in there."
Many myths and expectations abound regarding the phase of pregnancy where the baby and your body work together to prepare for labor and delivery. Toward the end of the third trimester, you may be reading about when your baby "drops" or becomes "engaged" and you might wonder how and if it will affect the time and outcome of your labor.
But what is "dropping"? Simply put, when your baby drops, it means that the presenting part of your baby's head has gone down into the upper portion of your bony pelvis.
"Dropping is also known as lightening," says Dr. Benito Villanueva, an OB/GYN and co-author of the book Simple Principles for a Happy and Healthy Pregnancy (WS Publishing Group, 2008). "Lightening is when your baby drops into your pelvic cavity in preparation for birth. This can occur either up to four weeks before labor begins or within just a few hours."
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