Dilation, to check or not to check – that is the question

This question, of course, presents a dilema for most birthing women. Many have told me that they are uncertain about submitting to an internal exam, just to see how far dilated they are. No doubt, there are times when an internal exam is needed, as in the case of baby distress, to determine the best course of action depending as to how far dilated a mum is. But, when a woman is calm and healthy and her baby is healthy, the discomfort this may cause is hard to justify.

Lesley Everest, a Canadian mother of 4, a doula and midwife, writes about births from her vast personal and work experience. In one of her recent articles, about routine internal examinations and how in a majority of instances these may lead to other unnecessary interventions, she wrote some things that really resonated with me andI would like to quote her:

healthy pregnancy“How would the practice of midwifery and obstetrics change if only a woman were told, “you are doing just great where you’re at” and were provided support instead of projected expectations upon something that’s about as predictable as a hurricane?

If only we could harness the magnificent power of Medicine and be able to apply it in ways that didn’t routinely harm birth, it would be a different world, indeed.

While Medicine most certainly saves babies’ and mothers’ lives, and we ARE supremely grateful for those skills and the compassionate way they are usually used, it is frustratingly also the very same system who takes a perfectly beautiful, sacred, perfect process and f***s it right up.

We don’t measure rose buds with our fingers, pinning down an estimated time of blooming. We wait and trust we will eventually see them flower. Given enough time, space, love, and nourishment, most women will birth. Sure, be vigilant. But don’t be frightening, making a woman feel like she’s stupid and endangering her child for continuing a labour because her cervix is unfurling in its own gentle time, in its own wise way…”

click to read the full article.