Politely saying no to internals once water breaks?

[clairelou88]

For me my waters broke way before I had any contractions and obv they had to check me to see if I was dilating etc. I never got any infection...

same here!

 

[MonstHer]

How will they know when you are ready to push?? They do it with sterile gloves.

There are outward signs that you're ready to push. Your body KNOWS when it's ready - vocalisation changes (many women begin to "grunt" towards the end of a contraction), physically a womans body looks different when she is complete. A good MW will be able to tell when you're ready, without even touching you.

Pushing a baby out is the same physiological response as having a bowel movement. You don't need someone to tell you when to push THAT out, so why does someone have to tell a woman when to push her baby out?

This is what I was thinking!
I don't get all of this.

 

[Tegans Mama]

Don't get all what hun? You would probably be better posting this in the natural birthing section, a lot more women with similar ideals for labour over there

 

[MonstHer]

Don't get all what hun? You would probably be better posting this in the natural birthing section, a lot more women with similar ideals for labour over there

I don't understand why women need to be told to push or be given internals to make sure.

 

[Tegans Mama]

They don't... but birth is overly medicalised and it's so normal for these things to happen that women expect these things and they just go along with them, a lot of the time whether they want to or not.

There is really no need for a woman to have anyone's hands up her vagina during normal birth at all. It's not even necessary for a MW to help the baby rotate in order to be born, if they're left to their own devices your body will rotate the baby during the contraction after the head is born and then birth the shoulders etc.

 

[Celesse]

You can say no to internals the entire way through your pregnancy and labour. Its your foof and if you don't want some stranger rumaging about down there you don't have to.

I have it in my birth plan that I don't want internals. This may change as I'm going to negotiate my birth plan with the head of labour ward and a consultant and as I'm VBAC-ing they want to know when I reach 7cm as the risks apparently get higher after tis point.......but I may still decide no. Or that I want to self examine. Or I may say yes to 1 internal if I'm transitioning, or if something looks wrong then I may agree. But its up to me, not them if I have an internal.

 

[LouLou78]

Like in my previous post I agree that in a normal straight forward labour the external signs of a labouring women are enough to indicate when the woman is ready for pushing and to indicate she is in labour in the first place. But I think that vaginal examinations do have a place. I am assuming all the previous talk of VEs being uncessary and pointless are in situations where the labour appears to be progressing well in a straight forward low risk woman with a fetal heart that has been reassuring. Otherwise a vaginal examination would YES therefore be necessary in a case where signs of fetal distress, meconium, obstructed labour etc are showing and the information from this VE would help choose the best intervention necessary. I am all for hands off, but there does come a point where a VE would be necessary.

 

[PeanutBean]

Don't get all what hun? You would probably be better posting this in the natural birthing section, a lot more women with similar ideals for labour over there

I don't understand why women need to be told to push or be given internals to make sure.

Because everything they see and hear tells them that's how it is and that somehow their baby will die without it.

Yes there are occasions when a VE would be recommended but that is not the norm and especially not in a natural setting with no other interventions.