Unless your partner actually knows how to check for dialation and knows what it means, I wouldn't be letting him do that. Risks of infection and accidental rupture of membranes (yes it can happen with self checking, even OBs and MWs accidentally do it sometiems) can happen. If the membranes do rupture you have a risk of cord prolapse and infection. Dialation really means nothing. It will not tell you how soon labor or birth will be. Midwives in other countries sometimes never check for dialation unless there seems to be a problem, and there is more to it then just dialation. Effacment also plays a part and an unskilled person will not know how to check/tell how far along you are. For most people labor will eventually happen, it is only a small % of people who truly do need intervention to get it started.