A mucous plug sure doesn’t sound like much fun does it? It’s not too fun, but it is useful.

When you’re pregnant, a plug, created by the mucous glands of your cervix seals your cervical opening. This is pretty helpful in guarding your cervix from germs and infection. The other benefit of the plug is that it can be a marker for labor and birth. Usually about 24 hours before labor is going to start the plug starts to loosen and or break loose. If you notice the loss, you can be sure that labor has arrived or soon will. It’s often mixed with blood (which is perfectly normal) and because of that many people call it a “bloody show.” Not all women even notice the plug loss though, so don’t worry if you miss it. There will be other labor signs - like crampy pain and diarrhea (good times).

Mucous plug… bloody show… Do you ever feel like pregnancy can sound like a horror flick? Useful body functions, but scary names.

Read how six different moms described losing their mucus plug.