internals/sweeps etc

[froubylou]

I'm currently 27 weeks pg with DC2. DD was born by ELCS due to being breech 9 years ago and somehow throughout all that pgy I never had an internal for anything.

I'm now hoping for a VBAC.

After watching Midwives last night from Tuesday I noticed that the M/W's seemed to do an awful lot of internals and when they did they seemed to be quite far up if you know what I mean?

Now I usually find smears painfull, so can't imagine how painful it is to have all of someones arm (it seemed like it from behind my pillow!) investigating your fanjo when you may be in labour! They also didn't give the girls any pain relief at all until they had a good rumage.

My questions are apart from finding out how dilated you are is there any other purpose for an internal? In a normal straightforward labour as long as the womans body knows how far along she is, its not going to matter if no one else knows she's at 6 cm or 9cm is it? Apart from if the woman wants an epidural or baby or mum starts getting in distress?

Or am I missing something? Just dont want to spend anymore time than necessary having my fanjo poked!

There are other ways of assessing progress without getting elbow-deep, and you can refuse consent for an internal at any point, including during. It's not pleasant but it isn't horrendous either, bearing in mind you're already opening up down there.

At any stage, if they say they "need to" or are "just going to" do an internal, you can ask why and whether there's a less intrusive alternative.

Oh and sometimes they will offer G&A while they rummage.

Last labour I had just one when I first turned up at the hospital to see how far along I was (6cm), it wasn't pleasant but not painful. After that they just left me to it, they seemed to think everything was progressong ok without.

I just had my first internal and sweep today (it's my due date) and I was worried about it and that I would feel violated. To be honest it was fine, didn't hurt, midwife was reassuring and got me to relax all my muscles etc and it was not at all as bad as I thought. If u tense up it will be worse. I did take 2 paracetamol in the morn tho because I was told sweeps hurt but it didn't. I figured it can't be half as bad as a head passing through there which I will experience soon enough.

I've had internals and vaginal scansn) this time and had a sweep with last pregnancy. Has never caused any pain. Consultant did sweep last time and I didn't feel anything really. Dd2 was here 24 hrs later though so must have worked!

I had a sweep on Tuesday. I found it uncomfortable but not painful. The uncomfortable part was because the baby's head was fully engaged so it felt like quite a lot of pressure. I was surprised by how fine I was with it. My midwife was lovely and repeatedly asked me if I was ok and asked for consent several times.

In contrast, if you are worried about the fact you find smears painful I had a sort of smear today as I thought some of my waters had gone and they needed to check using a speculum. Although it didn't last as long as the sweep I definitely found it worse.

my last birth in 2011 i only got checked when i went into delivery the once then dd was born so many hours later they said they changed things to only doing cervical checks to once every 4 hours ive had sweeps they are not painful but not fun lol

you don't have to have them to tell if you are in labour. An experienced midwife can tell by other signs.

I've given birth 5 times.

My last two babies were born in a birth centre. I wasn't examined whilst pregnant or in labour. Both were waterbirths so midwife didn't actually touch me during the deliveries!