Читать книгу Getting Pregnant For Dummies - Sharon Perkins - Страница 34

The cervix is the lower part of the uterus. It keeps the baby from falling out of the uterus when you’re pregnant because it’s a tight, muscle-like tissue. The cervix also guards against infection because it’s filled with mucus that forms a barrier between your vagina and the inside of the uterus. If you have an incompetent cervix, it means that the cervix doesn’t stay tight and closed when you’re pregnant but starts to open up from the expansion of the uterus and the weight of the growing baby. The hallmark of an incompetent cervix is painless, cervical dilation in the second trimester of pregnancy. An incompetent cervix is usually stitched with a suture called a cerclage. Issues with an incompetent cervix do not appear until the second trimester when the baby is larger, so a cerclage is not placed until the early second trimester at around 16–18 weeks.