Most people know what Dilation means, but effacement can be confusing. Your cervix is long and thick when pregnant. Think of it as a glass Coke bottle top and neck.. Can you picture it? A cervix must do two things will in labor. Dilate and Efface. Dilate is to open and efface is to thin out.These two things occur independant of each other.

You can be 90% effaced and only a fingertip dilated or you can be 9 cm and 50 % effaced. In other words you can be really thinned out but not dilated or you can be almost fully dilated and still very thick.

When you are effaced 90% or more the cervix feels like a thin slippery paper.

Okay now I'm going to throw something out there you might not know. You have what's called an external opening to your cervix and an internal opening to your cervix. So you can be 2 cm dilated externally and closed internally. Think of the coke bottle again and put your finger in. The opening going into the bottle let's say is about 1 cm and when you reach into the neck it opens up to say 4 cm. I hope I'm not confusing you.

You only see this when the cervix is long. Once it is effaced the internal opening and external opening become pretty much the same thing.

So sometimes I check someone and they'll be 1 cm external but closed internal.