Can I ask the MW to check if I'm effaced and dilated at my 40 week appointment?

[SongOfHiawatha]

I am 40+4 today and have a mw appointment. I'm really curious to know how close I am to labour starting and was wondering if today she might be able to check my cervix to see if I am at all dilated and if my cervix is ripe. Would this be an ok thing to request? According to the NHS website, all she will do today are the usual things (urine, blood pressure, measuring bump...) and offer a sweep. I don't want to have a sweep yet, would rather wait until I'm at least 41 weeks, but I would like to see if my body is actually preparing for labour or if I'm likely to need an induction.

Yes, sure you can ask :-) I don't see why she would refuse. But if she does, there's still no harm in having asked?

Take the sweep! It will only work if your body is gearing up for labour anyway! Plus will allow your midwife to see how close you're getting- just take note that even if you're like 4cm dilated you could still be waiting a good while to go into Labour!

I asked this, she agreed. What I didn't know was was she would check of dilation by sticking her finger up my cervix. Absolutely bloody agony.
Give you hands a really good wash and have a check yourself.
Having a sweep isn't risk free.

There isn’t a great deal of difference between a sweep and an assessment of the state of your cervix. If she does it be aware that it could hurry labour along even if she is very gentle which I am sure she would be. Alternatively a full on sweep doesn’t always do anything.

And if it is agony you can always ask her to stop at any time - it is not a necessary thing.

At my 40+2 appt I asked the mw to check my cervix, and if it seemed like I was on the way then to do a sweep, but not to do it if it didn't look favourable. Best of both worlds! Cervix wasn't ready so she didn't do it.

Had a sweep a week later when I was 40+9 and 1cm dilated - contractions started at 5:30 the morning after.

Oh, that's interesting... I thought a sweep was quite a deliberate action. But I guess examining your cervix is pretty invasive too, so not too dissimilar.