Most of us know that women need their cervix to open up by 10cm to be able to give birth to babies.
I found an interesting visual a friend shared on Facebook to demonstrate the journey the cervix takes in opening, using every day spherical food objects.
The comments from people included: "If only it was just a bagel I have to get out of there!" and "I was a bagel in THREE AND A HALF HOURS WITH NO PAIN RELIEF".
Hospitals are fixated with VEs - Vaginal exams - so they can write down how many cms women are dilated by during labour.
Current guidelines recommend that VEs are offered to women at regular intervals of 4 hours to assess labour progress, but they only give progress for the second that they are being done.
They are not an accurate gauge of when a woman will give birth. I had one client recently who said she went from 3cms to 9cms in 5 mins which totally took the midwife by surprise.
Vaginal exams are also not very good predictor of when labour will start as women can be 6 cms dilated for weeks before labour begins.
They can increase the risks of infection, even when done carefully and with sterile gloves because they push the normal bacteria up towards the cervix. There is also increased risk of rupturing the membranes (accidentally breaking the waters). And let's face it, nobody ever said how much they liked having one done - it's the hospital equivalent of being 'fisted'!
The upshot is there is no science behind VEs. And because every midwife has different sized fingers, the measurements can vary from midwife to midwife. So if your midwife ever says to you during labour: "You're still only 3cms" - say to yourself instead "yes, I'm dilating - I'm a slice of Banana" (see visual), because positive thinking can get you a very long way in labour.
Just remember, a bagel isn't that much bigger than a banana. And if you don't like bagels, maybe you could visualise a donut or a scone instead, yum yum!
I found an interesting visual a friend shared on Facebook to demonstrate the journey the cervix takes in opening, using every day spherical food objects.
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| Not to scale! |
Hospitals are fixated with VEs - Vaginal exams - so they can write down how many cms women are dilated by during labour.
Current guidelines recommend that VEs are offered to women at regular intervals of 4 hours to assess labour progress, but they only give progress for the second that they are being done.
They are not an accurate gauge of when a woman will give birth. I had one client recently who said she went from 3cms to 9cms in 5 mins which totally took the midwife by surprise.
Vaginal exams are also not very good predictor of when labour will start as women can be 6 cms dilated for weeks before labour begins.
They can increase the risks of infection, even when done carefully and with sterile gloves because they push the normal bacteria up towards the cervix. There is also increased risk of rupturing the membranes (accidentally breaking the waters). And let's face it, nobody ever said how much they liked having one done - it's the hospital equivalent of being 'fisted'!
The upshot is there is no science behind VEs. And because every midwife has different sized fingers, the measurements can vary from midwife to midwife. So if your midwife ever says to you during labour: "You're still only 3cms" - say to yourself instead "yes, I'm dilating - I'm a slice of Banana" (see visual), because positive thinking can get you a very long way in labour.
Just remember, a bagel isn't that much bigger than a banana. And if you don't like bagels, maybe you could visualise a donut or a scone instead, yum yum!
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