I am officially 9 days over my due date. My baby girl is way too comfy in there and, as a result, I’ve been booked in to be induced later this week. Last Friday I had to go to my antenatal clinic to get a ‘membrane sweep’, my first dreaded ‘internal examination’ (wow, those words don’t half make me shudder). It’s offered to women over their due date to help bring on labour and is where your midwife or doctor sweeps their finger around your cervix which separates the membranes of the amniotic sac surrounding the baby from your cervix. This separation releases hormones which could potentially kick-start labour.
Yes, it’s uncomfortable and feels similar to having a smear test done. Unfortunately, mines was borderline painful and I was so tense the midwife was unable to go through with the procedure.
Afterwards, the midwife gives you a score out of 10 which takes into account factors such as the dilation, length, position and consistency of your cervix. 10 means it’s time to get the show on the road, 1 means that there is still a long way to go; I scored 2. So what’s the next step? I have been booked into the Midwife Led Maternity Care Unit on Thursday at 9.30am to be prepared for my induction which will take place on the Friday. I’m still a little fuzzy on the details as my head was so full of information and worry at the time of hearing all this. From what I can remember Thursday will consist of a long day of monitoring the baby and potentially either having a pessary (a bit like a tampon) inserted to soften the cervix or put on a hormone drip to help start contractions.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared but I’m just trying to keep focused on the fact that I’ll be holding my baby girl by this weekend. Nothing is set in stone yet, my contractions may start naturally before Thursday, the might even start by the time you’ve finished reading this post! I have a number of scheduled post plans for the next couple of days but, as you can imagine, things are pretty hectic right now so you’ll probably find that I’m a bit quieter on social media and slow at replying to your comments. I’ll update you next week with my experience and hopefully share a few photos of my beautiful baby girl…
Wish me luck!
I’d love to know if you had any similar experiences.
Please share them below so I have something to read when Ross has to go home and leave me Thursday night to keep my mind off things – I hate hospitals!
