Pregnant mothers, here’s a visual guide to cervical dilation. Gulp.

When you go into labour, your cervix will begin dilating (aka opening and thinning) in preparation for your baby’s arrival.

It’s basically unblocking the path to your baby’s exit route - and women usually are asked to push when they’re 10cm dilated.

But what does that mean, really?

Well, writing on the popular Facebook page, Prego & Mummy Chat, one mother explained: “People always wonder what dilation looks like.

“Here is a visualisation…”

She accompanied her post with a visual guide to the tricky topic of cervical dilation, which used commonplace objects - such as cheerios and bagels - to give mums-to-be some idea of how big their cervix would get during labour.

And, all in all, it left plenty of Facebook users flinching.

Check it out:

Wow - we don’t think we’ll ever look at bagels the same way again!

Somewhat unsurprisingly, reactions to the informative post were mixed.

One mum-to-be said: “Thanks for scaring the cr*p out of me, my cervix is gonna be the size of a bagel in a few short weeks!”

“Way to scare new moms to be,” said another.

“Omg I'm not even pregnant and this picture makes me cringe. Good luck, ladies,” commented another jokester.

But one seasoned veteran had some words of advice for all the pregnant women fretting about their impending… ahem, ‘bagels’.

“Don't be scared,” she said comfortingly. “Just remember your breathing and you'll be just fine. Don't let all the stories get to you.

“A lot of them are blown way out of proportion. Just relax, don't stress. Women have been doing this since time began.

“You'll all be fine.”

Wise words indeed, eh?