Most women during pregnancy develop a mucus plug in the cervical canal. Learn signs of labor, what a show is, what a mucus plug is, and what it might mean if you lose it.

The mucus plug is usually thick, like jelly, and sticky. Vaginal discharge is usually thinner and more slippery than sticky.

The mucus plug can look like, well, mucous. But it may also be tinged with brown-colored discharge when it dislodges. You may notice the mucus plug come out all at once.

Pregnancy brings all kinds of changes to your body, ... “As the cervix gets ready [for labor], it loses the mucus plug that’s been protective up to this point,” Hernandez says.