[mammabear61101]

What exactly does it mean to strip membranes? My midwife offered to do this next week if we wanted, but I am not sure what it is.

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[mamarsupial]

after having read about stripping membrane's in ina may's book, we decided to have this done at the last couple of prenatals. the initial reason one of our cnms wanted to do it was to get my cervix ready for gels...but having read ina may, i knew that the stripping alone might help encourage extra effacement and dilation. i have no idea if it helped or not, but i did go from being a little soft and 1 cm to 80% effaced and 2+ cm over the course of the last week (and the cnms are no longer talking about pitocin or gels). i'm not advocating you have it done, mind you. the main drawbacks to the procedure are that a) its painful, b) the bag of waters could be broken, c) the possibilty of infection, and d) it is often done without the woman's knowledge. i would talk all of these things over with your midwife.

childbirth.org - stripping the membranes

gentlebirth.org - sweeping/stripping membranes

 

[mamaroni]

Someone else can and probalby will give you a better technical description, but i had this done with ds and can tell you about my experience and how I understand it.

It's where the midwife will insert her finger(s) and essentially detach the amniotic sac from the top of the cervix. This releases hormones which may help bring on labor. I was dilated to 4 and 5 days post-date when I had it done. There was no discomfort involved. I have heard of OB's doing it to women who were NOT dilated at all, which means they had to physically open the cervix first--OUCH!!

For me, the stripping of the membranes along with sex/orgasm helped bring ds peacefully along that same day.

 

[mamarsupial]

Quote:

For me, the stripping of the membranes along with sex/orgasm helped bring ds peacefully along that same day.

while we haven't gone into labor yet, i do think the combo of stripping and sex also has helped us to dilate and efface. as i said above, the cnm wanted to strip the membranes to prepare for a prosteglandin gel. i wasn't interested in having gels at all, but i applied the idea that it would aid in the effectiveness of gels to the effectiveness of my own dh's 'gels'

if you aren't dilated at all though, it must hurt like crazy. even at 1cm, it hurt. today i was 2-3 and, even though i had asked she do it, i had to check with her after the exam if she had remembered my request. i didn't feel it at all.

 

[MaWhit]

I would never do it. Seems invasive and unnecessary to me.

 

[Mothra]

I let a midwife do it my first pregnancy, but won't ever do it again. I had horrible cramps and scary bleeding and still didn't have my baby for another week. I was dialated about 3cm and 80%(I think, it was a lot) effaced when she did it. It was very uncomfortable for me.

Another risk is that of infection. I don't do the checks at the end of the pregnancy due to the increased risk of infection from the vaginal exams. It is small, but still there. If your bag of waters is broken and you don't go into labor, you could be looking at a possible c-section. Worst case senario, but scary enough for me to avoid it.

Do some more research before you make up your mind.

 

[Quirky]

I agonized about whether to let my midwives do the strip and sweep, but I was 42 weeks (sure of dates) and looking at getting booted out of their care/scheduled for an induction if I went to 43 weeks. So I did it, 3 times if I remember correctly (different days). Each one hurt progressively more (last one was awful) but the last one did the trick. (And this was after nipple stim with a breast pump, sex, acupuncture). I was also a little dilated and effaced before we started the strip and sweeps.

I decided to go for the strip and sweep over the castor oil, because I wasn't comfortable with the effects of castor oil on ds.

It really is a judgment call. I desperately wanted to avoid a hospital induction and was willing to take the risk of my waters breaking prematurely.

 

[mamarsupial]

Quote:

I decided to go for the strip and sweep over the castor oil, because I wasn't comfortable with the effects of castor oil on ds. It really is a judgment call. I desperately wanted to avoid a hospital induction and was willing to take the risk of my waters breaking prematurely.

i'm in the same boat. not overdue, but there has been some pressure to induce. i didn't feel comfortable doing cohash or castor oil...so this seemed like a reasonable alternative to those and definately to pitocin and gels. we also did it in combination with sex, nipple stim, epo, and LOTS of walking!

 

[lovelee]

I had this done with both pregnancies.

The first time it was on my due date, and I went into labor within 7 hrs and had her 5hrs after that. There was NO pain during the procedure.

With DS, the midwife did this at 38 weeks with no effects, and no pain, but did it pretty "lightly". She then did it a week later with slight discomfort and I went into labor within 12 hours.

 

[Sustainer]

I would never let anyone do that to me. I consider it invasive and an unnatural interference and an attempt to make labor happen before it is ready to happen on its own, before the body is ready (they are trying to force the body to be ready). Some doctors do this to women without warning. I consider it a form of rape. Never let anyone do an internal exam after 36 weeks.

 

[mamaroni]

In my case, I asked the midwife to do it. She reluctantly agreed after we discussed all the possible ramifications. I was past 40 weeks. It was my first vag check the entire pregnancy. My feeling was, if the baby really wasn't ready to come, then it wouldn't, but I wanted to try. I think everyone has a different experience, just like with everything relating to pregnancy and birth. We all need to make our own choices. It is certainly horrible when an OB or medwife does this to a women w/o her consent or knowledge.

 

[casmi]

Quote:

Originally posted by Whit I would never do it. Seems invasive and unnecessary to me.

Yeah, I was talking with my OB about this as they offer to start doing it at 38wks, and I wouldn't do it for the exact reasons above. The baby can *NOT* stay in there forever and has to come out sometime. Of course I've never been "late" so I've never agnozed over some potential problems and being extremely uncomfortable.

 

[Ali]

Quote:

Originally posted by Devrock Never let anyone do an internal exam after 36 weeks.

Never let anyone do an internal on you while pregnant. Period.

WRT to the OP: I feel greatly uncomfortable with any type of augmenting of labor. Some babies just take longer to "cook".