stretch and sweep

[trudles]

I'm having a stretch and sweep on saturday didnt have one last time. Just wondered what your experiences were dont really know what to expect. Did it work for you?.

There have been many discussions about that one.... I am against it personnally because it's an induction and that induction make labour unnecessarily more painful. Many women have them.... some regret it other don't and some have it done without consent !
How many weeks will you be ? Is it your first ?

I had one a couple of months ago around 2 in the afternoon when I was 10 days over (I didnt want to be induced or have to go to a hospital over the birthing centre I was booked into) and I really didnt feel anything (had imagined it to be horrible). It seemed to make an immediate difference (I went shopping with dd all afternoon catching up on errands) and I had my ds at 7 the next morning after a 4 hour labour. So I would definitely recommend it, but of course it could have been a coincidence!

I am generally against interferring with things BUT by the time I was 9 days overdue and they were threatening induction and my BP was rising, this seemed like the lesser of all the evils. I did some reading on it and found a midwifery journal article which said it wasn't that effective but had no side effects unlike other methods of induction (e.g risk of infection after waters broken etc).

I ended up having 3 sweeps!

The first two were done by my own MW at home. It wasn't even uncomfortable but left me with a show which went on for a couple of days (looked like snot I'm afraid!) and mild period like pains but nothing else happened. The following day I asked her to check to see if it had any effect. My cervix was much softer and had dilated a little more so she did another sweep "while she was there" - didn't mind as I felt it was helping. However still no proper labour so when my BP went up and I had to go in for a pre-eclampsia check-up (turned out it was the show causing protein in my urine through contamination) I asked the MW there to do another sweep as the clock was really ticking and the consultant was grilling me about induction.

This time she was much more thorough - I expected her to come out holding the baby, and it really was very uncomfy - but it did the trick. I had a bloody show soon after and DD2 was here within 5 hrs!

If you don't feel happy having it done then just say, and if it hurts too much then ask them to stop but it might help you avoid a full-on induction. However they won't do it anyway unless your cervix is doing the right things.

I was 10 days late and they did a sweep. Apparently I was 4 cm dilated! Things went downhill from there, mainly because they thought the baby was on his way when he wasn't. I often wonder what would've happened if I hadn't had a sweep. DS would've probably turned up a couple of days later.

I had a sweep when I was 4 days overdue, my consultant said that I was about 1cm dialated and the sweep would probably start things off and I'd deliver within 24 hours. I had a pinkish smear afterwards and period pains and felt uncomfortable and sick for the rest of the day.
I didn't go into labour as he predicted but lasted another 6 days, with the odd twinge here and there but nothing definite.
I'm not sure if I would have one again as it didn't seem to do anything positive to help only made me feel very uncomfortable and nauseus (sp?)
Have heard other people say that it worked for them though, I guess a lot of it has to do with whether or not the baby is actually ready to be born.