The 'water' that breaks when you go into labour isn't actually water at all.

Every pregnant woman lives in fear of that one haunting moment.

No, it’s not the physical equivalent to nails-on-a-blackboard that is ‘a contraction’.

And it’s not the inevitable moment when you tear, uh, down there.

It’s the sudden release when your waters break. And the gushing. Oh yes, there’s often gushing. Hopefully not on your favourite shoes, or worse still, on SOMEONE ELSE’S favourite shoes.

But prepare to feel a whole lot more grossed out about this not-so-joyous time in your life. Because your waters? Well, they aren’t actually waters.

On the first episode of Hello Bump: The Pointy End, our resident obstetrician Dr Sgroi joined the podcast to assuage all our pregnancy concerns. Post continues after audio.

According to Dr Joseph Sgroi, your beautiful little baby is currently splashing around in a pool of their own wee.

Take a moment to register that.

When your waters break, that’s not water soaking into your carpet. It’s baby pee.

*Shudders*

“In actual fact, the water surrounding the baby is the baby’s urine,” the Melbourne-based obstetrician and gynaecologist explains.

“The kidneys will produce urine during the baby’s time in the womb… and that’s a marker of the baby being quite healthy.”

So before you get all woozy over this news, just remember it’s a good thing. We all want a healthy baby, and to get a healthy baby, well, you’ve got to put up with a little bit of wee.

But there’s just one more lingering question… If it’s not really water at all, why does everyone call it that?

Well, pretty much to shield us from the uncomfortable truth. We’ve got years of unruly pee ahead of us once the baby is born. Let’s just live in blissful ignorance for nine months.

Kay?

For more unfiltered stories about pregnancy, listen to the full episode of Hello Bump: The Pointy End below.

You can subscribe to the show at apple.co/mamamia

This content was created with thanks to our brand partner Westpac.