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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

If I don't want a sweep?

28 replies

bohemianbint · 19/08/2008 14:19

Am only 40+2 but midwife today wanted to book me in for a sweep at the weekend. I said no, and she siad they'd look at doing one on Tuesday instead, because it's better that than induction.

Thing is, I'm fine, baby's fine, and I have no intention of being induced at 10 days over. I don't see why I should have to, why mess if everything's fine?

Am I just being weird about this?

OP posts:
Skimty · 19/08/2008 14:23

I don't think so but I'd do the same!
This is your 2nd I think, were you on time or over then?

StarlightMcKenzie · 19/08/2008 14:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

chocolateshoes · 19/08/2008 14:26

I didn't want a sweep but did when DS was 6 days overdue & it was then that they found out he was breech having been told for the previous 2 weeks that his head was engaged!

Don't think you are being weird at all but in my case it was the right thing to do.

Hope everything goes well for you.

Original poster
bohemianbint · 19/08/2008 16:44

yep, this is my second baby and I went 6 days overdue last time. Depending on how you look at it, that is, because my original date based on my LMP (not scan) was the 12th and he came on the 11th, so who knows? My date based on LMP for this time was the 22nd, so I guess it's possible I'm not that overdue.

I also have a bit of a problem with assuming that a baby takes exactly 280 days to cook. Surely they're all different, just like all women's cycles are different?

I'm aiming for another homebirth as well, and I don't know at what point they start getting shirty about that.

Seriously though, why is a sweep offered as a matter of course as soon as you hit the 40 week mark? Is it just to fit in with hospital policy, and if so, is that not absolutely terrible?

OP posts:
TheBlonde · 19/08/2008 16:56

YANBU, I had one with DC1, offered a second but declined as the first one was awful
DC2 I just kept saying no thanks

Tatties · 19/08/2008 17:02

YANBU - I agree, why mess if everything's fine? I had one with ds, it was awful and did not move things along at all. I wouldn't do it again.

WaynettaSlob · 19/08/2008 17:05

YANBU, if that's what you want.

Having said that, I had sweeps with DS1 and 2, and am hoping to have another next week for DC3.....I view it simply as giving nature a helping hand (plus was 14 days late with #1, and at the end of my tether!)

Original poster
bohemianbint · 19/08/2008 17:07

I really feel like am being bullied into it; I said no to having one at the weekend so she's insisting on trying on Tues. Am hoping it won't be an issue by then anyway, but I have absolutely no intention of having one and I could really do without having to argue about it.

OP posts:
WaynettaSlob · 19/08/2008 17:13

that's not nice. Write down your reasons why you don't want it, and stick it in your notes. That way, if you are feeling bullied / emotional at your next appointment you can simply point to it.

Original poster
bohemianbint · 19/08/2008 17:34

Should probably add that after my waters broke with my first labour, a midwife came to check me out and told me after she'd done the internal that she;d given me a sweep. I was a bit that she would do this without checking, as I was adamant I didn't want one last time as well.

I then had a very very fast labour, which was good, in a way, but very intense and I can't help but wonder if I might have had time to get into the pool if she hadn't interfered with me. I felt a bit violated by it, tbh.

OP posts:
StarlightMcKenzie · 19/08/2008 17:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

TheBlonde · 19/08/2008 17:44

Make sure you don't agree to an internal then, sounds like your MW would give you a sweep whether you like it or not

Original poster
bohemianbint · 19/08/2008 17:45

I've just found this, which makes quite interesting reading:

I originally wrote in response "I think it is simply unethical for health professionals to put their fingers in women's vaginas on the off chance that it might precipitate labour. If women request this and have full information it's a different matter. This may seem extreme but I think there are a number of issues.

  1. the consultant's motivation and the assumption that on what is essentially a whim he can determine other health professionals actions.
  2. the acceptance that pregnancy should be shortened for no apparent reason.
  3. the disregard with which the female genitalia are held.

I'm on one of my hobbyhorses -- that any interference with normal physiology needs to be justified in ethical terms."

Since then I've read the various abstracts which people have posted and I'm not sure that it really undermines the substance of what I wrote. There was an unthinking assumption that a shorter pregnancy is better and according to my reading of the original mail the consultant didn't justify or rationalise this instruction. And even if it doesn't cause infection and regardless of the degree of discomfort it seems wrong to me to subject women routinely to this. It seems to suggest that pregnant women's genitals should be generally available to any old health professional. It is common for women to say after they've had a baby that they have lost all modesty -- and I don't think it should be like this. This kind of routine treatment is a way of inducting women into a submissive role.
Yours,
MT (retired midwife, probably with a rather strange sense of proportions)

OP posts:
FrannyandZooey · 19/08/2008 17:48

I had a sweep at 40 + 10 and another at 40 + 12 in the hope it would start labour, as I wanted a homebirth and knew I would get no co-operation after 42 weeks
I was offered sweep from 40 weeks - just declined it, no problem

Original poster
bohemianbint · 19/08/2008 17:52

Franny - did you get your home birth in the end?

OP posts:
kikid · 19/08/2008 17:53

YANBU.. stick to your guns! the baby will come when ready, god i wish these people would leave pregnant women alone.

I was 14 days over, they would have had to come and find me to get me to have anything!

MrsMattie · 19/08/2008 17:55

I had a sweep on my due date. The midwife just sort of sprang it on me at my routine appt and being a naive first timer I said 'urrr, ok then'. I have no idea why so many MWs offer early sweeps. it seems like totally pointless interfering to me.

catsmother · 19/08/2008 17:55

I had a sweep in 1990 and it was excrutiating ...... probably because they hadn't even bloody told me, or more to the point, asked me if they could do one ! I was a week overdue and the midwife said "I'm just going to get the consultant to look at you" so that's what I thought he was going to do - look. I thought it was a bit strange that at that point the midwife put her arm round my shoulders, so she, the cow, must have known what he was going to do.

It was the worst, most sickening type of pain you can imagine and I was so shocked I didn't say a thing, I just felt violated. I only realised what had happened when he said "that should get things moving" - except it didn't and I was finally induced with my waters being broken and an oxytocin drip more than a week later (18 days overdue). I really wish now I had complained at the time .... I was treated like a slab of meat and did NOT give my consent for that procedure.

Anyway, don't let yourself be bullied into such an unpleasant procedure unless it's absolutely medically vital.

Original poster
bohemianbint · 19/08/2008 17:58

catsmother - that's horrendous!

It really makes me angry that things are presented to you as a fait accompli - I'm not sure people realise that they have the right to refuse these things. And even if you do realise, they still pressure you! It seems so totally, totally wrong IMO.

OP posts:
MrsMattie · 19/08/2008 18:02

That's such a horrible story@catsmother. Makes me angry!

catsmother · 19/08/2008 18:28

What was worse was that the arrogant git consultant, who I'd never met before, then said "did you have difficulty conceiving ?" (er, no) and when I asked why he'd asked, he said that as I had "rather a lot of pubic hair" FFS , he suspected I might have had PCOS !!!

At the time, what with being due to give birth any day, & then a newborn baby, complaining was the last thing I had the energy to think about doing, but I so wished I had.

HonoriaGlossop · 19/08/2008 18:37

catsmother that is truly awful I would guess an awful lot of complaints that could be made, arent - because people are just too exhausted and stressed to do it. That is awful what happened to you.

Original poster
bohemianbint · 19/08/2008 18:37

Jesus - he sounds like a totally innappropriate arse!

OP posts:
Turniphead1 · 19/08/2008 18:41

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

LittleMyDancingForJoy · 19/08/2008 18:47

I had several sweeps, all of them painful and humiliating, none of them worked. I was induced at 40 + 15 and had the most horrendous labour, and was forced to have my waters broken by pressure from midwives and consultants, something I didn't want at all.

my friend recently had DC2 and refused all interference and had her naturally, at home, in the pool, minimal interference.

I am deeply