Stretch & Sweep at 38 weeks.

[scarlettewrath]

Doctors put me forward to have my stretch and sweeps at 38 weeks onwards, what's others experiences of this, this is my 3rd pregnancy however my previous pregnancy was 9 years ago now, how successful or unsuccessful was it for others? Getting nervous 😳

I said no to any of these before as I didn’t want interventions but each to their own. What is the benefit of doing it? Have you heard of the acronym BRAIN when making choices during pregnancy.

I read the Cochranel review on this. The NNT (number needed to treat) is 8. This means they need to do sweeps on 8 women for it to make any difference to 1. It will have no effect on the other 7. I'm not sure why they bother.

They're concerned about the baby measuring small, and asked me if I would accept being induced, I said no as if she's small surely it makes more sense to give her more time to grow so the alternative being the stretch and sweeps to reduce need for formal induction as iv only really heard bad things about people's experiences with medicated inductions.

I am not a medical professional, but 32 weeks high risk pregnant. If they are concerned that the baby is small, they might do so because the growing rate might have slowed down. Has your baby measured larger previously? If that is the case, then it might have happened because the baby doesn't get enough nutrition and there could be problem with the placenta or the cord and baby will grow better outside.

I would call the midwife again for more information and for pros and cons of the induction in your case.

For my second I asked for a sweep at 39+6 because they wanted to induce me at 40+2 and I wasn’t keen on the idea. I had the baby about 36 hours later so avoided the induction. The trouble is, I have no idea if I went into labour because of the sweep or it would have happened anyway, so I can’t tell you if it was successful or not.

I had sweeps for both pregnancies from 37 weeks, due to measuring big and gestational diabetes. Induction booked for 38 weeks both times.

First pregnancy I had 2 sweeps but had a low score. They made no difference. Had pessary induction, was slow but OK, needed further intervention but that was likey to have been needed regardless.

Second pregnancy, had first sweep and got a more favourable score. It triggered early labour witihin a few hours, then fizzled out by the next morning. I did get some waters trickle, so went in the following day for induction due to hospital being cautios about infection risk. As the sweep had worked fairly well, cervix was favourable for ARM rupture of waters, which was fine. I was told I'd need to go on the drip after 2 hours if no progress due to infection risk, but I had a speedy but straightforward labour and baby was out within 1.5 hours. Doctor was a bit surprised!

So basically, it could do nothing or it could be helpful. I went for it, as it was a minor intervention that I was OK with. Everyone is different.

Had multiple sweeps with my first pregnancy due to a number of reasons and they were absolutely fine just uncomfortable and loads of pressure. I got crampy pains after them all but none sent me in to labour. As it turned out, baby was in an awful position and eventually after days of labouring, then going on oxytocin, I had a section after all else failed. So I do believe that a sweep will only work if your body and baby are ready. Just gives you a nudge in the right direction. Can be a good way of avoiding induction if that's the alternative.

While it makes sense in theory, leaving more time for baby to grow inside doesn't necessarily work like that. In most cases, the reason for a fall off in growth is placental insufficiency. If that is the case, then the only way to make baby grow is to have them earthside and get feeding. Are they happy to leave you be if you decline induction? I would imagine if they're seriously suspecting placental insufficiency they'd have had a very frank conversation with you as leaving it can be dangerous.

She was on the bottom percentile, came up a little bit and then fizzled off again, they said placenta flow looks good when they scan but not sure if that contributes in terms of nutrition or if it's just to show blood flow, and no they was quite abrupt booked me in for more scans and told me it was no better on my next scan it was induction or a c-section, she's moving round lots though and feels healthy and strong but obviously I know there professional opinion is important and I'm the end they do know best, just been so long since my last pregnancy it all feels very daunting, I don't remember feeling this worried with my first two babies.

Aw god I'm sorry you're going through such a worrying time. You just want your baby in arms at this stage don't you. Sounds like she's smaller than average and her rate of growth slowed which is what they're concerned about. It's a good sign blood flow is still normal but they're being cautious as these things can change fairly quickly. Have a good think about things and maybe if you wanted to consider the sweep before formal induction that's an option. And see what your next scan says. Best of luck for a straight forward birth xx