The information you need to make confident decisions about cervical exams during pregnancy and labor + videos.
Let's Talk About Cervical Exams During Pregnancy and Labor
You’re not wrong to want a cervical exam during pregnancy for a certain reason that is valid for you or if you don’t find any discomfort with a cervical exam during pregnancy. Having a cervical exam during pregnancy is not wrong.
You’re also not wrong if you feel extreme anxiety about the thought of being on your back, of being undressed from the waist down, of a stranger coming into your personal space, or of your sex organs being manhandled by other people. If you are feeling out of control in that whole situation- you’re not wrong. Saying that cervical exams during pregnancy are required for great care is wrong.
Accepting or declining cervical exams is a layered conversation, and one we should unpack around pregnancy and childbirth. Without giving a diagnosis (possibly as a trauma response), this is an example of your body’s way of protecting you from something that it has seen before, been hurt by, and a huge reason why I advocate against cervical exams being required for admission to labor and delivery.
I think it’s barbaric.
When I say I know you don’t need to have a cervical exam to have a baby or to be admitted into the hospital, I say that because I’ve seen it happen.
I had a one-on-one client who hired me because she had a traumatic first birth. We strategized on how to avoid trauma in this upcoming birth. One of the triggering events for her was cervical exams and being on her back. It was crucial for her to have these open and very vulnerable conversations with her provider very early on. She found a team, a provider, and a group that were okay with admitting her and watching and waiting and doing expected management. It was noted in her chart that she wanted to arrive at the hospital without a cervical exam and how her treatment was going to progress without a cervical exam, barring big changes.
These are things you need to know about cervical exams during pregnancy to make decisions about your pregnancy and labor:
- A cervical exam is a subjective test that nurses and providers do with their fingers. They feel the cervix through the vagina and they measure how open it is.
- A cervical exam during pregnancy is not a test that your provider can do to determine when you will have your baby or when you will go into labor.
- A cervical exam during your pregnancy is a snapshot in time.
- A cervical exam does not give much information.
- Your cervix can change rapidly.
- A cervical exam during pregnancy comes with risks.
- A cervical exam during pregnancy can kind-of tell where the baby is.
Hospitals and health care can actually be called corporate medicine, and just like any other big business the bottom line is money.
If you don’t want a cervical exam during labor you might just cost the hospital too much money sitting in a room without the option of expediting delivery or active management of labor. That’s the medical model of care – the alternative is the midwifery model of care. All of this is to just clear up some of the misunderstandings and misinformation that we are being told by medicine (which is a business) about our bodies. Your body is not telling you anything wrong. Voice, choice and physiology on this topic are not wrong.
A foundation of legal requirements can help us understand:
- The EMTALA Act was passed in 1986, stating that hospitals have to assess and stabilize everyone that comes into the emergency room.
- All Patient Bill of Rights state that patients can decline any test or procedure, even if it’s recommended by the medical team. The labor and delivery nurses in this conversation have all seen babies born without a cervical exam prior to their birth.
If you’re still curious about service rules and labor, (and a lot of y’all are curious about it and talking about it – I love it!) here are two things you need to start doing immediately:
- Stop taking everything that the provider says as rule or law.
- Consider extending the line of questioning: “OK, if I don’t do this, then what, or then what, or then what?” I think if language is evaluated it really means you can’t have an epidural without a cervical exam.
Ya’ll, knowledge is power. The Ultimate Guide to Taking Control of Your Childbirth is a great way to arm yourself with knowledge and learn what to expect!
Know your rights as a patient! Click on the video below for more discussion on Informed Consent! 👇
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