Pray provide me with the dirty details of cervical checks (for dilation &c)?

No, no; I'm not looking to get one done for no reason. I'm just confused as to why what I read about them is so -- how to put this? -- big on fingers, but not on speculums.





Surely it would be easier to look rather than feel?





Anybody up for describing the process in great gory detail? And explaining how their practitioner manages to estimate centimeters with any precision?

Pray provide me with the dirty details of cervical checks (for dilation %26amp;c)?
One, specula are time consuming and much more intrusive than a finger. You have to insert just right, and screw it open. Then visually estimating cm' from a peek through five or six inches of dark tunnel about two inches across is much less reliable than being able to feel the cervix.





The cervical check also needs to feel softness and depth of the cervix, which you can't check visually either.





Estimation comes with practice....not a happy thought, but there it is. In med school they do practice, and learn approximately how many fingers per cm, or vice versa, if you have a big hand, I guess.





All in all, since child birth is nature, and not science, it's all a big guess anyway.
Reply:http://www.birthingnaturally.net/birth/p...


http://www.birthingnaturally.net/barp/ce...





http://www.birthresourcecenter.org/cervi...
Reply:doctors do not use a speculum to check how far you are dilated. and pretty much the doctors have checked people so often they can tell how much you are dilated by feeling. basically one finger tip is a cm i think i have heard.
Reply:they just feel with their fingers ...its quick %26amp; not too uncomfortable but not a party either. they estimate dilation by fingertips (most docs have lots of experience) but im not sure how they tell effacement.
Reply:SERIOUSLY, TAKE A PILL!!!
Reply:It is very common to have a vaginal exam at your weekly visits leading up to your due date. Your doctor or midwife is checking, as you say, on the dilation, which is how open or closed your cervix is (measured in centimeters) and effacement (how short your cervix has become). The doctor may also be checking to verify that the baby is head first in the pelvis and to verify the station (how high or low the head is in the pelvis).








Most people don't have too much trouble visualizing the concept of dilation -- when the cervix is closed your doctor can't even get one finger inside, and when it is fully dilated, your doctor can spread his or her two fingers in a wide "V" that measures literally 10 centimeters from the tip of one finger to the tip of the other.








The concept of effacement is a little bit more difficult. I like to describe it with the following analogy: Visualize a turtleneck jersey with the long neck portion representing the cervix in its normal, uneffaced shape, a long cylinder with an opening down the center. Now, start to pull that turtleneck jersey over your head, and as your head goes through the neck of the jersey, the amount of normal tube gets shorter and shorter, until your head pops out at the other end. At the point where your head has gone through and is just about to emerge, you can't see any more of the original unstretched turtleneck. At that point you would be fully effaced if that were your cervix.








Usually dilation and effacement progress hand in hand, but there is some variation from woman to woman where some women will efface before dilating significantly, whereas others will dilate several centimeters before starting any significant effacement.








Does the degree of dilation and/or effacement at your routine visits predict when you are going to go into labor? The easy answer is no; unless you're having regular contractions that are significantly uncomfortable and your cervix has been demonstrated to be changing in effacement and/or dilation compared to a previous examination, there is no way to say when you will go into labor.