25%, 1cm, posterior, soft.

You just left your provider’s office and at one point during your cervical exam, they rattled off some numbers and immediately you were transported back in time to high school Algebra. Before you grab your graphing calculator or feel like your body has failed some sort of I’m-never-going-into-labor test, check in with your doula. 

We know the cervix has to do a few things, four to be exact, for a baby to pass through it and the numbers your provider rattled off to you give us an idea of what that means. 

For example, you may have heard:

      -4, 50%, 2cms, posterior, soft.

The number with the negative or positive in front of it tells us how high or low your baby is. In this scenario -4 is still quite high if you consider that +5 means your baby is completely delivered. 

The number affiliated with the percentage reflects how effaced your cervix is. Effacement is also known as thinning and can occur when the uterus contracts. Oftentimes in the days leading up to delivery, the cervix may begin thinning out. A cervix starts out being about an inch and a half thick, or 0% effaced, and once completely effaced (100%) is as thin as a sheet of paper. In this scenario, a cervix that is 50% effaced is now three-quarters of an inch thick.

The number affiliated with cms pertains to dilation. A cervix starts closed and thick. Dilation, or opening, occurs when there are productive contractions that are stronger, longer, and closer together. Contractions, or those big squeezes your uterus feels every few minutes are helping your cervix to open. 2 cm here isn’t much larger than a fruit loop, whereas 1cm is the equivalent of the tip of your pinky. The end goal is a cervix that has reached 10 cm dilated. (Compare that to a bagel. Yes, a bagel.)

The cervix begins in the posterior position, aka pointed towards your butt. If you hear your provider say it’s hard to reach your cervix, this is likely why. You still have a more posterior cervix. As you near the end of labor, the cervix should move from the posterior position to the anterior, aka pointed towards the front. 

The cervix needs to ripen or soften. In this scenario, your provider said your cervix feels soft. Sometimes clients will hear that their cervix is firm. The best way to differentiate between firm and soft is through this example: a cervix begins firm but malleable like the tip of your nose and a soft cervix feels like your ear lobe. 

You might feel discouraged or like your body isn’t doing what you want it to do when you hear these kinds of numbers, but we want to assure you that these are all signs that your body is experiencing cervical change. Any change occurring before the delivery itself is considered less work you’ll have to do in delivery.