💫Cervical effacement💫

💫Cervical effacement💫

I created this visualisation to show how the cervix effaces (thins out), in addition to dilating during labour

So after squeezing the ball into the balloon, you can see that the cervix (spout of the balloon) is still long.

Its not until I start to put pressure on the ballon, squeezing it from the top downwards (to simulate contractions) that the cervix starts to draw itself up as a result of the contractions and baby's head.

Eventually the cervix totally thins out and looks like its actually part of the uterus! After effacement (or sometimes at the same time),, the cervix will continue to dilate until the baby is ready to be born. Cool huh?