Question about Midwife appointments........

[lisaspoon]

Just a quick question..... I know I'm too early as I'm only 34 weeks soon, but does the midwife start checking your cervix for dilation/effacement at appointments as you get further along? and when does this start if it does at all?????

cheers ladies!

 

[EllieBelle]

Your MW should start checking the babies position from 34 weeks and tell you when baby starts to engage........Im not sure they check for dilation etc unless they have a reason too, but I might be wrong??

 

[widowwadman]

My midwife says it's not the done thing over here, unless labour has started, as they basically want to avoid introducing germs or irritating the cervix, so they only start checking as late as possible.

From reading German pregnancy forums I know they do it regularly over there, and the women there keep comparing their dilation things.

I'm not quite sure what this should achieve, as some women can run around part dilated for weeks without it being a sign of impending birth, whilst others only start dilating/effacing at the very very end within hours of giving birth.

 

[Naterjack]

I am 39 weeks today and despite weekly ante-natal assessments / consultants appointments, as well as my monthly MW appt's, i have never had an internal or my cervix, etc checked (which suits me fine - don't fancy all that)

I think its only something they will do once you get past term or if you have problems

The baby's position was checked by scanning me (i've seen my baby on screen about 10 times now) and feeling my tummy. They don't need to do internals to check that.

 

[widowwadman]

Wow, that's a lot of scans. Hope everythings ok with you and your baby..?

 

[lisaspoon]

ahh I see.... I did wonder if it was something that was checked at term +....

midwife has done position at my last few appointments...last one was head down but back to back and free. She said its still a little early to look at position....

 

[Naterjack]

Wow, that's a lot of scans. Hope everythings ok with you and your baby..?

I am assured everything is fine, but my consultant (who i see cause i'm very short and have high BP) has a new mini scanning machine at the new maternity clinic in my home town so he uses that to check for bubs heartbeat rather than a doppler .

 

[Alicebabe]

I've never had an internal throughout my pregnancy....

 

[AliCat]

The MW just checked baby's position and measured my bump growth,she never checked my cervix.

 

[Laura_James&Amber]

My M/W never checked my cervix, she wouldn't even give me a sweep when I was 5 days over! And I was in slow labour at the time and she still wouldn't do it! I was told they won't do internals unless necessary (when waters have broken, contractions close together etc) as they don't want to cause unecessary harm by passing germs through