To ask for your experiences with stretch and sweep?

[Februaryblooms]

Can I be cheeky and ask for your experiences with cervical sweeps? I know it's a bit 'personal!'

Ive just had a sweep at 39+3, it was completely different to what I was expecting and was told beforehand that it would likely be very uncomfortable. It wasn't.

I barely felt anything. The doctor said this was because my cervix was already open about 1 - 1/2cm and mentioned that she could feel babies head.

Did you find your sweep painful and did it work?

I'm wondering whether she wasn't vigorous enough..i'm desperate to avoid induction which is on the cards due to reduced movements!

I had one on Christmas Eve and aside from the fact that i was the shittest Christmas gift ever, it also hurt more than the actual labour a week later. The Midwife doing it laughed as I cried and told me that I was being a baby and to come back a few days later for another. I told her I'd sweep her cervix with a garden rake if I ever saw her again.

(For posterity, birthing the 10lbs 4oz baby hurt less than the sweep).

I called the birthing centre, they said to keep checking my pad over the next few hours and that I didn't need to go in as of yet. They couldn't hazard a guess as to whether it was my waters that went. It was such a strange sensation, but no pop? Odd.

It's intriguing hearing others experiences of the sweep! I feel for those of you who found it to be really painful, I feel fortunate in the respect that mine didn't today. Maybe I have a baggy cervix

Oh and a Russian swing chair is a chair you labour on (and can give birth on) it has a rope which you hold onto and is designed to make labouring ladies more comfortable / get in optimum positions. I think they look wicked and am hoping to try it!

Op get thee to Holland and Barrett tomorrow and buy some castor oil (it is labelled for massage by the way but it is food grade and you can ingest it).

Two tablespoons in some fruit juice or a smoothie, it can help kick off contractions and has been used by midwives for decades - scientific evidence below.

evidencebasedbirth.com/evidence-using-castor-oil-to-induce-labor/

My first was an almost audible pop and a gush, second was just a wet sensation like when you flood with a period so you don’t always get a pop.

I suspect they don’t want you coming in at night and rather you wait until morning!

Mine was horrific and left me in pain for a long time afterwards! I also had to be induced anyway.

I refused two in the last week because midwives I didn't know with quite a brusque manner. Third appointment I had a midwife who I felt very comfortable with and she was very calming and lovely. Didn't hurt at all and I also felt it wouldn't work but later that evening my waters broke

Anything happening op?

Absolute agony - dh had to hold me down so I didn't flip off the bed - the Dr had fingers like bananas on steroids!!

I had one at 37.5 weeks. I don't remember feeling anything during it and the baby was born less than 48 hours later at 38 weeks. He was so grumpy that I have always felt he just wasn't ready to be evicted! He was 8lbs 3oz though so fully cooked. My wonderful doctor was not expecting it to work and I was booked in for an induction 4 days after the day he was born (I live very far from the hospital and had previous fast labours so wanted to avoid delivering on the side of the road.)

Few tightening cramps last night, nothing major though.

Woke up in bloody agony with my SPD that seems to have worsened x10 over the past two days.. typical.

Couple more tightenings today coinciding with when I get up/sit down

AND quite a lot of mucus with a bloody show

Currently cleaning like a mad woman (again) in attempts to stay active even though the flat is spotless

I've got a scan at 3.45 so I'm going to walk the mile and half to the hospital if I can manage it.. feeling a bit determined

Mil walked from her scan to the delivery suite... 10 mins and then gave birth pretty much as she walked through the doors. I'd walk some of the way OP 😂
As for your waters going... It's not always clear when they go. I didn't realise mine had broken until I had a check at the hospital at 9cm dilated and they asked me when they'd gone. I told them they hadn't and they said "nope, they've definitely gone"

I wasn't told I was getting one, the doctor just went ahead and did it. I thought he was just doing a pv examination. It felt like an assault and was frightening and painful. My membranes ruptured prematurely, I ended up with an emcs, ds was born strep b positive and ended up in nicu on iv antibiotics.

I had 2 sweeps but each time wasn't told before hand otherwise I would have refused as I know sweeps don't work in the majority of cases. Anyway they were bloody painful and pointless as I was being induced anyway.

My first hurt. But of blood and cramps. A week later and after three more sweeps I was induced 😂

Oh and my waters didn’t break until I was 9cm!!

Horrendously painful, had to have g&a. But I was in the process of being induced, and had already been prodded, poked and had the pessary.

I've no idea when my waters broke - must have been during the instrumental delivery as they tried before but they were all behind DD so it didn't work.

Those who had sweeps without being told - that's awful. You have to consent, no consent = assault. It's not the first time I've seen on here that women have experienced this, why on earth some hcp seem to think a pregnant woman becomes a non-human i don't know. It's horrifying.