Your mother's bag of water had been broken.

[mampwamp]

My wife's bag of water has been broken.

After the baby is born, we tell him "Your mother's bag of water had been broken at that time."

When it past, the present perfect is becoming past perfect?

 

[emsr2d2]

Do you mean "My wife's waters have broken"? That is what happens shortly before a woman goes into labour and starts to actually give birth. It's not "her bag of water has been broken".

My wife's waters have broken. (Present perfect)
My wife's waters had broken. (Past perfect)

When your child is older, you might say something like "Your mother's waters broke while we were in the supermarket. We drove straight to the hospital and you were born just three hours later".

 

[SlickVic9000]

(Not a Teacher)

The singular is also acceptable:

"My wife's water broke this morning."

I'm guessing that the singular is more common in AmE, since I've never heard anyone use the plural before.

 

[emsr2d2]

And I've never heard anyone use the singular. So there's another addition to our huge list of BrE vs AmE differences.

 

[Rover_KE]

I can't wait to use it in conversation with my American friends.

Again I ask, mampwamp, where do you you find these sentences you ask about here? There is always something a bit odd about them.

If they are your own, what prompts you to write them?

 

[kwfine]

That's good question.

 

[MikeNewYork]

That's a good question.

 

[2006]

Medical people do not say "bag of water". They speak in terms of 'membranes' rupturing or being ruptured.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Medical people speak of "water(s) broke". It is common in the language.

 

[2006]

Medical people speak of "water(s) broke". It is common in the language.

That's more 'patient speak', but the medical people speak to patients in various ways. 'water', not 'waters', but that's enough of that.

 

[emsr2d2]

It depends on what you mean by "patient speak". I imagine that amongst themselves and on medical notes about a patient, doctors probably refer to "rupturing of the membrane". However, if a pregnant woman was consulting a doctor and the doctor said "Has your membrane ruptured yet?", I imagine the woman would have no idea what he/she was talking about. I would expect the doctor to ask the patient "Have your waters broken yet?"

 

[Raymott]

Warning - Medical content.

There are actually two membranes, for those interested, the chorion and the amnion. "Rupture of membranes" is correct. There's usually only a small amount of fluid between them, but 'waters' is just as correct as 'water'.
(Picture shows rupture of the inner membrane before the outer - which shouldn't happen.)

When a doctor does a AROM (artificial rupture of membranes) to induce labour, with one of these little hooks, s/he has to nick
both membranes.

 

[Barb_D]

Yeah, thanks Ray. THAT's a happy memory for this mom, who had induced labor and the little hook thing.
I had the baby after only four hours of labor. But the four hours SUCKED!

 

[2006]

I hope this will be my last comment. People do speak of ruptured membranes, but the membranes are fused together at the time of birth so there is only one sack of water. "waters" is not correct.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Evidently that is not true in BrE. Do you think AmE should trump BrE?

 

[Raymott]

I hope this will be my last comment.
That's entirely up to you. No one can force to comment or not to comment.
... so there is only one sack of water. "waters" is not correct.

"The amniotic sac surrounds your baby, protecting it from infection. When your baby engages, the amniotic fluid will be above and below your baby’s head. The forewaters are like a cushion for your baby, located between the baby’s head and the cervix. The hindwaters are above the head (assuming your baby is head down!), surrounding the baby’s body."
http://www.bellybelly.com.au/birth/waters-breaking#.U3mDQdIdD0Y

It's quite possible that Canadian mothers don't have forewaters and hindwaters, in which case, in Canada, you would be quite correct.
In any case, this is an English forum, and in places other than English-speaking North America, people say "waters", and those people (doctors, midwives, mothers) are not wrong.

Spanish women have 'aguas', not 'agua':
[h=3]Romper aguas y la marcha del parto http://www.guiadelnino.com/parto/parto-normal/romper-aguas-y-la-marcha-del-parto[/h]Italian women has "acque", not 'acqua'.
[h=3]Rompere le acque - http://www.matrimonio.com/forum/rompere-le-acque--t96308[/h]
It seems like a silly thing to argue about. It's what people say.

 

[Tdol]

I hope this will be my last comment. People do speak of ruptured membranes, but the membranes are fused together at the time of birth so there is only one sack of water. "waters" is not correct.

Correct or not physiologically, waters is the term used in BrE, so your correction is not true for all variants.