stretch & sweep membranes ?

[proudmamanow]

Hi everyone!

I'm now at 38w4d with my very first baby. At our homevisit today, my mw (who I really like for her laid back approach), offered the possibility that she could stretch & sweep my membranes in order to encourage labour to start closer to my EDD. She presented it as being something akin to using EPO vaginally (which I plan to start soon), something that would ripen the cervix, but won't bring the baby unless s/he is ready. She is, as I said, totally laid back, and would only do this if I ask for it at my next appt. What are your thoughts on this? My mom went really late with me, her first (6 weeks, so the dates were obviously wrong back in 1974). I'm not in a big hurry at this point, far from it, but I also don't want to go way post dates...I'm also drinking RRL as an overall healthy thing.... but the membranes intervention sounds, well, a bit extreme to me.

thoughts and views/experiences welcome! (and I'm away all day tomorrow so I may not reply until tomorrow night!)

[azmama]

I recently had my membranes swept at 41.5 weeks due to post dates becoming an issue as far as timing out at the birth center where I planned to have my baby. Looking back I think I would not do it again. First, it really hurt and brought up all kinds of fears about childbirth pain which I learned were simply that--I was able to manage labor pains quite well in the end. I had them swept twice--the first time did nothing noticeable, the second time contractions started in just a couple hours leading to a fast labor. Second, after a really great labor, I ended up having to birth my baby by cesarean due to my baby showing signs of distress at the pushing stage. I can't say for sure if the sweeping of the membranes helped lead to my cesarean, (I also let my midwife break my water when I was fully dialated with a bulging bag of waters which also sped things up) but if there were any chance it sped things up faster than my baby was ready for this may have caused my baby distress and perhaps the cesarean. The cesarean itself was not that bad, but recovery was terrible, and it has been quite difficult to look back on my birth positively not to mention lingering pain and difficulties due to having major abdominal surgery. If you are only at 38 weeks, and have a laid back midwife, why not try to enjoy the end of pregnancy and let your baby decide to come when he/she is ready? This is the way I would do it, if I could do it over again. Sweeping the membranes is really just another intervention even if it is not often considered one.

[proudmamanow]

thanks Azmama, that kind of confirms what I thought about it being an unecessary intervention....good food for thought as I'm not in a big hurry at al at this point.

[aprildawn]

wan2be -- i was going to have my dr do this for me at the end of last week if i didn't go into labor on my own. i read a ton about it on gentlebirth.org. it's only something i would do to avoid chemical induction which is the reason i was considering it.

i took epo, drank gallons of rrl tea, and i was taking dr christophers pre-natal tea. it's a capsule full of all sorts of herbs. won't induce labor, but it helps ripen your cervix. i've got some left if you want me to send it to you.

[proudmamanow]

thanks april so glad you had such a happy ending with your story and now have your lovely ooey!
And good suggestion to check gentlebirth too... I'd love to have the rest of your dr. chris tea (if it makes it across the border : ) ...I'll PM you my address!