VERY Painful Sweep- Am I a wimp?

[Tinkerbell43]

Hi All,
I'm 40 weeks pregnant and had my first sweep this morning to try and regulate the annoying contractions I've been having for the last week or so.. however I found it to unbearably painful to the point where I had to ask the mw to stop several times to breathe and then eventually stop all together! She only managed the V/E didn't even make it to the sweep!
The mw was lovely and gentle and gave me plenty of time to breathe when i needed to and was happy to stop when i asked. I have never been told that sweeps are painful before and this is really worrying me, is it normal for them to hurt or am i just a complete wimp?
Seriously considering re-writing my birth plan to include a epidural, if i cant cope with a sweep how am i going to manage birth?!
scared.com

My understanding is that if you're close to going into labour yourself it may kick start you but if you're not ready, there's no point! I pushed for mine with DD as was booked for an ELCS at 40 + 10 so was determined to try anything. If I hadn't had that time pressure I don't know if I would have bothered.

I had my mw appointment this morning & was offered another sweep- I had to say no, couldn't face another so soon.. If baby still isn't here next week I may have to man up and let her do it.. eeeeeeeep

Another one here in the "excruciatingly painful and didn't work" camp.

I know they say they can help when your overdue, but I dont buy that really as lets face it your overdue so will no doubt go into labour at some stage. So, if you have a sweep at say 41 weeks can it really help or just a coincidence? we`ll never know

I dont see how they could do any study on it tbh, unless you clone the poor woman.

My mw told me today that it probably wouldn't work, and that even though they are studies done that say they do like you say there studies done on over due women who are likely to go into labour anyway, for the pain trauma & discomfort I'd go through to have it done again she said its really not worth it so I didn't bother lol x

I reckon a sweep is an old midwives tale, they prob dont know why they do it either, just been doing it since the dinosaurs anyway, the other midwife mantra is, baby will come when its ready!

Tinkerbell, overdue is pretty horrible I went to dead on two weeks over and was just getting into the car to go for induction when he decided to make his appearance (Ive just realised even now you cant rush him, he always does everything in his own time ), but I remember how fed up I got everyone around me had had theirs.

for you and get walking and hiking

Thanks Dreams :) ! Going to try not think about the fact I'm over due & pretend my edd is actually in 2 weeks time that way I can't technically go over - not in my head anyway haha!

Might force the DP into DTD Later in the hope that might get things moving! Hehe

Another one here who finds any sort of VE, smear or attempted sweep excrutiatingly painful. With DD2 they did an attempted sweep, which failed as my cervix was so high and posterior. I was in so much pain I left the surgery in floods of tears.

I managed the whole labour at home, with no pain relief except the pool and a back to back baby which made every contraction feel like being kicked in the back by a horse. (Not that there is anything wrong with pain relief. I just had a bad experience with epidural first time round and didn't want to repeat). That pain was waaaaay more manageable than the sweep or any VEs. It is still the worst pain I have ever experienced.

That's just the way it goes for some people. If we do have a third, I shall say no sweeps, no VEs unless there is reason to believe me or the baby is in danger and I'm seriously thinking about trying to get some sort of special assistance to cope with a smear (if only they would give me some gas and air. I just adore the stuff!).

I nearly broke DH's hand the first time.

Mind you I kicked the consultant in the head when he broke my waters.

Evidently I react badly to pain.

Don't worry purrpurr, they can check labour progression without VEs. They are not compulsory and you can refuse them. There are external signs of progress they can monitor, like your behaviour, purple line and rhombus of michaelis - VE is used to check cervical dilatation and position and station of baby. I didn't feel anything during VEs when I was in labour, but VE by consultant just before my induction was awful. My face felt on fire and I felt sick.

Hi ladies :-) i had my second sweep yesterday was much less painful than the previous one, cervix has come forward a lot so wasn't as much rummaging !! Hope your all doing ok and good luck with babies when they decide to arrive x

Ah Tinkerbell, have been thinking about you, feet up now for the last few days hopefully then this sweep will do its magic, will you come back and let us know when your baby arrives, pleasssssssseeeeeee

Birth update ladies my little boy was born yesterday at 1.34pm weighing a massive 8lb 12 oz ! Don't know how I managed to be honest !! Hehe
Hope your all well and have had or will have babies soon lots of love xx

I had three s&s at the end of my last pregnancy with DC2 as they were trying to get me started before I went for induction. I had two that were fairly bearable and then the last one, on my induction day, well all I can say is oh my word. The midwife said to me, as someone said above, this will hurt, because if it doesn't, I'm not doing it right... She certainly lived up to that promise. You are not a wuss by any means.

Well done tinkerbelle! No more s&s for you!!!

Congratulations! Welcome to the world little Tink

Tinkerbell, I`m late to the party as usual! Congratulations and welcome to the world baby Tink x

Sweeps do work but maybe not as much as is thought for term pregnancies you have to sweep 8 women to have one bring forward labour.