This isn’t my first baby, I’m 28 weeks and I’ve only ever had one smear done before. Last night I had some brown discharge so went to fetal assessment unit. Thankfully baby seemed to be ok, heart rate fine etc. Then a doctor came along and had to do an examination down below to check for cause of bleeding.
He had to do a ‘fetal fibronectin’ test and I only know that because the midwife told me after. It’s to test if you’re likely to go into labour imminently. He never once explained to me what he was going to do or why. The midwife gave him a speculum with jelly on it but he said to her can’t use that as it might give a false positive so he had to use no lubrication.
I was already nervous considering the circumstances and saw him reach for a dry speculum and he was so rough! He never spoke to me the whole way through the exam- after the swabbing part he then put lube on his fingers and without saying a word to me just shoved them in! It was so painful I started crying- he moved his hand around roughly inside and still don’t know what he was feeling for as he never said! Then he just left and the midwife was checking if I was ok- I was so shaken and crying it was such a horrible experience. My husband was with mme and was so angry with the doctors manner and how rough he seemed to be.
I had no clue what was happening next - the midwife said sorry the doctor has been bleeped to go elsewhere but should be back soon. Then the reg came along and She said she needed to do another exam to check the cervix for bleeding as she’d been told to review by the other doctor. She was so much more reassuring and gentle. It was uncomfortable but not as hideously painful as before. It was still not a nice experience as she inserted the speculum then asked the midwife to go get cotton wool so she could clean th cervix to have a look. Midwife couldn’t find any so I was just lying there with legs open and a speculum in for about 10 minutes which felt like 2 hours! At that point I just felt so over it, I was so sore and it has made me terrified for labour!
Turns out I do have abnormal bleeding so need to do further investigation but baby fine and no sign of early labour. But is it normal to have such a high level of pain during an exam like this? Was it just because he was unnecessarily rough? I’m so scared for how I’m going to cope as I just felt so vulnerable and violated!