Sunday, April 21, 2013

Saturday's Stretch and Sweep

41 weeks, 4 days

Well, the stretch and sweep turned into just a sweep.  I was not dilated enough to allow for the 'stretch' part!

She did mention she could feel quite a lot of scarring on my cervix, and that she'll have to pop that open during labour.  Yeehaw!  Cervical cryosurgery was worst thing ever.  Bah.  But I knew this a while ago, it was just re-confirmed again.

So, uh....the sweep really hurt.  :(  DH was on the ball and reminding me to breathe and things, but I was having a load of trouble.  I asked, "Is this what labour will feel like?", and she answered a "sort of" kinda answer.  Well.  At least I've had a preview?  I totally wasn't prepped with being ultra-relaxed or anything, we were just chatting beforehand.  So hopefully with the Hypobirthing prep this will also make things easier to cope with.

I pictured labour to be more muscle pain, but this was stinging cervical pain.  Hrm.

The good news is that DH had the presence of mind to try some acupressure while this was all going down, and I think it really helped.  There was one point when DH and I had a miscommunication - I meant "press harder" and he thought I meant "stop".  So he stopped, and in the time he was not pressing on the point it was much more painful.  Then he went back on and it was much more manageable.  Down to a dull roar, totally do-able.



When he was pressing the acupuncture point, mw sometimes would say things like, "this is going to hurt", and it didn't really hurt more.  So, good.  It was funny, last we discussed it and it turns out he was doing a point on my shoulder AND one on my hand, but I totally thought he was just holding my hand!  Hahhaa.  Odd!  I guess I wasn't thinking about my hand at all.

DH and I have since come up with hand signals.  I'm totally not great at vocalizing if I'm too relaxed, or under too much stress, so I think the hand gestures will be good.  (Yes/No/More/Less/Stop, nothing fancy).

Anyhoo, this did not put me directly into labour as might have been the case.  We actually went out to a dinner party last night!  Which was nice.

Oh, and the real news was that the ultrasound shows Appleseed is doing quite well in there.  She scored 8/8 (perfect!).  So no worries she's in distress (yet).

Plan:  Today I'll do the Castor Oil shake, then Monday I am transferred to secondary midwife, and we'll consult.  Likely blue/black cohosh.  Also Monday will be another bpp u/s.

4 comments:

  1. Labor hurts waaay more than a sweep. And rubbing your hand aint gonna change that!! Good luck!

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  2. I've been following your blog for a few days now and have read you're entire story. Unfortunately what the above person said is true. I've had 2= babies and it's going to hurt a lot more than a simple membrane sweep. Most of what my labors felt like was intense lower abdominal cramping and cervical pain. The doctor who delivered my daughter said the cervix has no nerves and it's impossible to have cervical pain. My regullikear ob called BS on that one. My contractions were also very different than I had expected them to be. When I had intense contractions, it felt like I had a belt covering my entire belly and was squeezing it really really hard. Waiting for the contraction to end felt like it took an eternity. I went natural and didn't do hypnobirthing but I did take classes and was well prepared. I can tell you that vaginal canal and cervix ached for days while my body was preparing for labor. That was the only time in my life I've ever had aches so bad that I literally cried. My daughter also had dropped early and was resting her head on my pubic none the entire third trimester. You'll most likely feel your pelvic structure opening and I can honestly say that was very painful and noticeable. The only thing that did help was sitting on the birthing ball for hours on end rocking my pelvis back and forth and side to side. Please don't let the membrane sweep fool you, I had them done with both my kids (I went to 41 weeks with my son and the sweep immediately put me into labor. With my daughter I was dilated to a 4, was at 42 weeks and had to have THREE membrane sweeps done before I finally went into true labor. I had been in pre-labor with her for days and each sweep was done really well, my daughter just wasn't budging). The sweep is like a 2 on a pain scale of was to 10. Unfortunately labor is very painful even with proper breathing techniques, acupressure, etc and bothb my labors ranged from an 8-10 on a pain scale and I have a very high poison threshold. also be VERY careful with the blue and black cohosh. I can't remember which one it is, but one of them could cause serious problems with baby, one of them being fetal death. I consulted with both my doctor, a midwife in the practice and my naturalist (all who use induction as a very last resort and are very conservative with western medicine) and all of them advised against it because the risks outweigh the benefits. I would suggest asking the midwife to massage the cervix to break up the scar tissue and help with dilation. My sister had to have that done because she had significant scarring on her cervix because of a procedure done years ago. She said having her midwife break up the scar tissue before labor was painful but allowed her to dilate on her own without further medical intervention (there's a name for having your cervix gently stretched and massaged to break up scar tissue but I'm not sure what it's called. Your midwife should know what it is). Best of luck to you during labor. Expect the unexpected, hope for the birth experience you want but be prepared for things to take a different direction if necessary. Oh, I also avoid gluten, I have Celiac disease. Have you been tested for it? It took having an Endoscopy done to confirm it in my case. My sons pregnancy triggered it.
    Tiffany

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  3. Sorry about the typos, I'm using Swype on my phone and can't stand it. One of the above comments was supposed to read pain threshold not poison threshold. The only poison that ever goes into my diet is wheat and gluten, lol.

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  4. I love that your DH can do acupressure and you guys have hand signals - great idea! Just stay focused hun - you can do whatever you put your mind to. Don't listen to anyone else. You got this, girl! I hope the sweep somehow kicks in and gets things moving for you!

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