Check for dialation

I only got told when I had a sweep at the hospital, which was offered at 37 weeks as I declined an induction, not by my community midwife.

As far as I know they don’t to it routinely x

That’s weird! My docs started checking me at 35w with my son cause I had really bad Braxton hicks. I was 1cm, then at 37w I was 2cm. Didn’t make it to 38w unfortunately 😅

I’m 2cm now at 37 week starting today

It's actually a good thing. Each check increases the risk of infection and is not informative at all at this point.

It’s actually great that she didn’t. I feel like a lot of doctors are so quick to doing cervical checks.. and it’s unnecessary. It’s true that it doesn’t mean you’re going into labor… I was 2-3 cm for a few weeks. The less checks, the better. Less risk of infection. And it doesn’t prove anything so no worries! You seem to have a great dr!

I wasn't checked before being induced, there's no point. You could have absolutely no dilation and still go into labour that afternoon.. or you could be 2cm and still take a week 🤷‍♀️

I had my first ever vaginal exam when i was induced and had 13 over the 2 days i was in labour and now my cervix is permanently swollen at the bottom horrible experience

I was never checked. I refused. Doesn't indicate when you'll go into labor and it's supposed to hurt like hell. If you want yours checked, tell your OB. I'm sure they'll do it if you tell them you want it.

I didn't get checked, I only got told when I went for a sweep. They checked when I was 40+2 bc they were starting to discuss induction but thru the pregnancy no one was looking at my bits.

In my experience I would say they are right. Its a bit painful and doesn’t really mean much. Also hi from Sacramento!

Mine never did. Not until the hospital. Totally unnecessary in my opinion and is not a sign labor is near or not

It’s understandable you were hoping to get some updates but honestly it’s not worth it and means nothing! I was only one centimetre dilated when I arrived at hospital with my first although was contracting every two minutes! Baby arrived about 6-7 hours later. At one point in labour I was just checked by an obstetrician and told I was only 6 and would likely be hours yet but baby was born less than 20minutes later!

It isn't standard practice in the UK. Unless you're having a membrane sweep. Multiple unnecessary examinations can increase the risk of infection and, unless you're having a sweep, checking your cervix means absolutely nothing in terms of when you'll labour. I did 2 sweeps last week, one was already 3cm fully effaced and hasn't laboured, the other was 1cm and 3cm long and delivered the next morning.

I opted not to have any checks at all with my second, even through labour. There’s really no indication that the amount of dilation is meaningful or follows a set progression curve, if you look into it. There’s a great podcast on this: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-midwives-cauldron/id1523178579?i=1000609434169

Never had it checked in my first pregnancy, not mentioned at all

I had kaiser and got cervix checked at 38weeks.It was neither a high risk pregnancy nor did i hv any issues.

I hadn’t been checked until my water broke at 40+4, I was a bit frustrated too to be honest lol, also, the few times I was checked during labour I never found it painful 🤔

It's not a thing in the UK.

It’s not a Kaiser thing my midwives also said they only check if I’m trying to be admitted into L&D because it doesn’t tell you much about when you’ll go into labor and it increases risk of infection unnecessarily. I understand the urge to know if you’re progressing and it might be useful if you’re in active labor but I don’t think it’s worth the infection risk to have them done repeatedly. My midwife team doesn’t admit based on hospital policy unless you’re at least 4cm or if your water breaks so they might do a CC in order to admit but otherwise they don’t do it and I’m grateful for that tbh!

I was never checked at appointments, I have sweep appointmens booked for it which my midwife decided to wait until i was 40 weeks

That's normal. You can ask for it, but unless there's a reason, checking just causes discomfort and doesn't say much if there's no signs of labor or complications. I didn't have mine checked until after my water broke after a few hours because my contractions weren't increasing. Then maybe 3 or 4 more times until I gave birth. I also did not have a sweep and asked not to have one. Wasn't a real reason to.