A vaginal examination in labour is ordinarily used to see how dilated your cervix is, but also can be used for other things such as a sweep, checking the baby’s position, taking a blood sample or monitoring the baby’s heart rate.
Anything being inserted up into the vagina will potentially increase the risk of infection and this risk will increase with the number of examinations that take place.
I personally found having vaginal examination in my first labour fairly uncomfortable, I made this clear in my birth plans for babies number 2 & 3 and made sure that the midwives looking after me knew that I wanted to minimise this as much as possible.
For my second baby I only had one examination on arrival at the birthing centre and I also only had one examination in my third labour, this took place once I was 18 hours into labour as I felt things weren’t progressing as I expected.
Some people will feel ok with vaginal examinations but others may find them stressful or even painful.
This came up in conversation with someone at my pregnancy yoga classes the other day and I want to be absolutely clear that you must consent to a vaginal examination. No one may insert their fingers into your vagina to give you an examination or a sweep without your consent.
Please know that your cervix is not a crystal ball and that the dilation of your cervix is often not linear. It is entirely possible to dilate from 1 to 10cm in an incredibly short space of time.
You can refuse a vaginal examination…
On occasion people are told that they MUST have an examination when they get to the hospital otherwise they can’t use the facilities. It is a breach of your legal human rights to withhold access to pain relief such as an epidural or gas and air. To restrict someone’s access to using the birthing centre, labour ward or birthing pool based on having a vaginal examination is coercive.
There are some other ways that a midwife can estimate dilation and progression of labour if they need to, by using the purple line of dilation and the rhombus of Michaelis.
For more ‘labour rules’ check out my website JustExhale or my Instagram page: Pregnancy Yoga & Hypnobirthing (@sallyjustexhale) • Instagram photos and videos
