Sweep - head position

[Showbel]

Hi
I am a mother to a beautiful baby girl who arrived safely, I just have a question which may sound a bit strange but I'm trying to understand the reasons why the midwife said what she did.
I was induced due to growth issues but had a sweep the day before to see if it would get things going naturally.

The midwife attempted the sweep - I asked her to stop after about a minute because it was so painful - when she stopped, she looked really shocked and said "your baby's head is really low down" and she kept repeating this and pausing like she didn't really know what to do/say next? Like she froze to the spot as well. It was a bit weird, eventually I asked her if that was normal because she was making it sound like it wasn't?

She said yes but she hadn't felt a baby's head that low in a while and it hurt her hands doing the sweep?! She said she had to reach behind the baby's head to get to my cervix.

She then asked me if I do lots of walking/if I'm very active?
Just wondering if someone can shed some light on what she meant and why she reacted the way she did. I'm wondering if I have some issues with my pelvic floor which I might not know about yet?

She then started saying what would happen next etc so I didn't think to actually ask her again why she said what she did but it's making me a bit concerned that there's an issue with my anatomy or something? She was a very experienced midwife (unit manager of the triage unit!)
I had my baby via c section in the end because induction failed ultimately.
Thank you

Can you contact them to ask? Might be in your notes. Otherwise maybe she was just surprised baby's head was so low and you weren't already in labour?

Don't they normally want to get through the cervix to feel the head? If she could feel the head, why would she look for the cervix?
But yeah I'd maybe ask or get checked by your GP?

If she couldn't feel the cervix then that means you were 10cm fully dialated and effaced. That doesn't sound right. I would contact them for a debrief and explanation.

My DS2 was very low and they couldn't break my waters they had to almost push him back up and grab to get a bit of membrane! It was horrendous!!!!! I was 4cm. And the membrane was so taught they were unable to use the hook effectively. Who would have thought a very low baby would be problematic lol

I’m a midwife @Showbel.

What has happened is your cervix was pointed backwards. So when she had examined you she can feel your babies head really low down, covered by your uterine wall. She has had to reach back and behind to find your cervix, which is hard to do with a low head, as you would have felt.

It just meant you were not in, or ready for labour. Once labour had started, your cervix moves into a more mid, that pointing forward position before starting to thin and open.

I hope that helps.