Checking your own cervix

[Quagmire]

Can we have a "how to" session on checking your own cervix?

I'm hoping to labor at home until I'm around 8/9 cm. Except I have never really felt my own cervix (or if I did, I didn't know I was doing it) so I'm not sure what it feels like normally. What would I be looking for? How do I "measure" dilation and effacement?

[Synchro246]

First, go clip your nails and wash your hands and feel around in your vagina. You should feel your cervix up in there. Trust me, you'll know. Since you are pretty darn preggo you may have to squat to do this.

Tell me what you feel. Then we'll talk about the changes you'll expect to feel.

[onlyboys]

If you feel like checking your own cervix, you're probably not at 9 cms.

Do you feel uncomfortable going by the emotional signposts of labor?

My cervix in pregnancy is very mushy, and blends in with the rest of my vagina. If this is the case, you may be only able to feel the dimple in the center, the os.

[Peppamint]

Originally Posted by onlyboys

My cervix in pregnancy is very mushy, and blends in with the rest of my vagina. If this is the case, you may be only able to feel the dimple in the center, the os.

I checked myself last week and this is what I experienced... I only recognized my cervix because of the os (maybe 2cm or something). Once it felt similar to having my membranes stripped I got the heck outta there!

Last time, I was laboring and thought to myself that I must be 8cm and when mw checked me, I was indeed.

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by onlyboys

If you feel like checking your own cervix, you're probably not at 9 cms.

Hah!

Originally Posted by onlyboys

Do you feel uncomfortable going by the emotional signposts of labor?

Well... maybe. I had an epidural with the first so I have no idea what transition might be like for me. Will I freak out? Puke? Curse my blasted husband for knocking me up? Or will I be in my zen place, having practiced yoga for the past year?

Just what are the emotional signposts?

[Emilie]

Everyone is different. I did not know I even was in transition.
By the time i thought I was in transition- I was already complete.
It is much easier to labor at home. Good for you.

[pageta]

Here is a great link telling you how to measure your own progress by checking yourself. It's an explanation by a midwife, I believe.

[onlyboys]

Everyone is different but one thing that I have always seen for every woman (including myself) is a sense of desperation for it to be finished. This doesn't mean that you will be begging for pain relief, but it does mean that you might feel, as I did, "I wonder how much longer this will take...."

Some women get frantic, some become so peaceful that they are barely awake, some get loud and scream, some lose it completely, but all of them have asked me at some point, "Are we just about finished here?"

I told my doula clients, if you still feel like getting dressed to go in to the hospital it's too soon. If it seems reasonable to walk in naked, then it's time.

[onlyboys]

In addition, keep in mind that some women don't have much in the way of 8-9 cms. Even in my first birth, I went from 6 to complete.

Could you hire a doula? This might help you stay home as long as possible.

[Cherie012]

Originally Posted by Quagmire

Just what are the emotional signposts?

I had an epidural with my VBAC~ and I still just "knew" when I was nearly done~ I told my RN I was ready~ she didn't believe me~ I was at 6 just 30 minutes prior. I was 10 and ready.

[KittyKat]

When I am in transition, I got to this point where I don't want to talk or THINK about how much longer is this going to take.

My DH asked me how much longer at one point with #4 and I was riding these HUGE waves of contractions and just gasped out as I was trying to chill between them "I don't want to talk about that."

It was probably only a matter of a couple contractions (ROUGH contractions) after that my body started pushing spontaneously, and like ten minutes after I started pushing (no clue how many minutes exactly, because i kinda wasn't watching the clock KWIM?) he was born.

The only times I got checked were at about 4-5 cms when I asked the MW to put some EPO on my cervix because the contractions were irregular and she said that could encourage the pattern to get more regular and strong. That did work, and it was only about 3 hours later DS was born. The other time was when I was feeling like I was about done and wanted to make sure there wasn't a "lip" or anything going on.

I have short fingers and I've tried checking myself a couple times this past week, but all I know is: my cervix is VERY soft and mushy, it's hard to tell the difference between the cervix and my vaginal wall. It's also probably slightly open because I have trouble finding the center. It's like, I can find one side of it, but not the other because my fingers are super-short and my belly is getting in the way. When I last managed to feel BOTH sides of it, it was about 2 fingertips open? I won't let the nurses/midwives in there. They asked if I wanted to be checked and I said no thanks!

Kathryn

[homemademomma]

Originally Posted by onlyboys

I told my doula clients, if you still feel like getting dressed to go in to the hospital it's too soon. If it seems reasonable to walk in naked, then it's time.

so true!!!
i never tried checking myself in labor, but during pg i cant feel my cervix at all, i think due to trying to bend around my belly and my cervix being higher up and softer. non pregnant i can feel it without a problem. so maybe you could teach your dp how to do it too, so just in case you cant reach, then they can help?
i think the emotional signposts of labor are much more important than the physical ones, BUT i think its a risky business going into the hospital too soon, and you might feel "transitiony" or like you cant do it anymore, only to get to the hospital and be 3 cm, kwim?

[Snowdrift]

This is driving me crazy!!! I've been watching this thread, and trying to do this for ages and ages, with zero success, that I can tell.

I get the textrure part--nose, lips, etc...

But--pardon my ignorance--where is it? What shape is it? What sort of nose- or lip-textured thing am I looking for.

Where is it? Towards the back? at the top (can't reach...I think)?

[velcromom]

Originally Posted by tie-dyed

This is driving me crazy!!! I've been watching this thread, and trying to do this for ages and ages, with zero success, that I can tell.

I get the textrure part--nose, lips, etc...

But--pardon my ignorance--where is it? What shape is it? What sort of nose- or lip-textured thing am I looking for.

Where is it? Towards the back? at the top (can't reach...I think)?

Does this help? Just to get a basic idea of where it is... I know there is no way mine is so far in, so ymmv on the accuracy of their scale/positioning.

cross-section of female organs illustration

[JanetF]

http://www.joyousbirth.info/articles...xlearning.html

Learning Your Cervix
- by Barbara E. Herrera, Navelgazing Midwife

Interestingly, women who want no one else to check their cervices (plural for cervix), invariably ask me how to check their own. I have described it for years, but finally wrote the process out for one of my on-line groups and it was well-received and understood for something that is 100% tactile as opposed to intellectual. I hope the information is helpful to those that want to know.

Read the rest at the link

[Synchro246]

Neat link.

If you are less than 30 wks chances are you will not be too effaced and finding the cervix will be easier. With the cliped nails and clean fingers try squatting and reaching around your belly . . .near the end I would have to go hands and knees and reach around the back. Just press your fingers along the back (posterior) wall of your vagina and go in as far as you can. When you reach the top swirl around to the front. Chances are you just swirled around your cervix. You have a 3D culdesac inwhich your cervix protrudes. Any one spot in the culdesac is called a fornix (plural is fornices). This is where the word fornicate comes from- fwiw. Anyway, the swirl around move was most useful for me in finding my cervix. It's like mapping the borders then working inword. Think like a bat.

If you have a crunchy, laid back friend, you could ask to feel her cervix and fornices. This can help you sense the difference and similarities. I realize most people don't have a woman friend willing to lend her vagina out to exploratory hands. I have one or two friends who would lend me theirs. Remind me to send them a card sometime.

[Satori]

Have you considered the less invasive method of just checking the red/purple line that will form up your butt crack in labor? http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/birth.html#Dilation

[JanetF]

Not everyone gets that line but yeah, I'm in favour of no VEs at all. They don't tell us anything much other than how far we've dilated and that has no bearing on how long labour will be or how effectively we're labouring. It's always useful to know more about our own bodies though, IMO Mood, colour, movement and sound are all better indicators of labour progress than cervical dilation alone.

[Quagmire]

Ok I checked mine (hard to get a few minutes of privacy around here!). It's seriously mushy I couldn't tell a whit about effacement, but it did seem good and sealed (probably a positive thing at 28 weeks eh?) Guess I'll have to feel it again in a few weeks. With DD1 I was 50% effaced and 3 cm dilated for like 6 weeks, so I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to feel it beforehand and get an idea.

Great links here, thanks JanetF and Satori!

So even after reading this stuff... I think it will all be a guess. The birth center is about 5-7 minutes away, but we'll need some time for my MIL to get to our house so we can leave our toddler with her (30 min driving in no traffic, plus whatever getting ready time she needs). Maybe I need to start a new thread on this

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by JanetF

Not everyone gets that line but yeah, I'm in favour of no VEs at all. They don't tell us anything much other than how far we've dilated and that has no bearing on how long labour will be or how effectively we're labouring. It's always useful to know more about our own bodies though, IMO Mood, colour, movement and sound are all better indicators of labour progress than cervical dilation alone.

After reading all these other threads about VEs and what they tell you and the midwife, I'm also pretty convinced that I don't want any exams I don't do myself. Question is, how do you convince your midwife that you are close enough that she needs to stay? I'm going to ask this at today's appt but just curious on what everyone else's experiences are. Did the midwife insist on an exam? If you were able to turn them down and had a looooooooong labor afterwards, was the midwife irritated that she had to stick around without really knowing whether it was "worth her while?"


Just curious...