Cervical Checks

Are best done regularly by the owner of the cervix, long before she's pregnant and about to give birth. Did you know there is a natural method of fertility awareness that allows you to consciously control pregnancy and facilitate conception? One that requires no risk of synthetic hormones from a pill or shot, t-shaped contraptions forced internally, no jellies, foams or diaphragms to insert, no condoms, not even basal body temperatures or charts or woman calendar iPhone apps needed either, though journaling and using prophylactics is smart during the learning curve. All it takes is about 3 seconds a day of employing your senses and using your brain to learn your body. Your longest clean finger will find your cervix easiest, a daily check will reveal it's changes through your cycle from feeling firm like your nose (meaning not fertile) to soft and more open like your lips around ovulation when fertility is high. Along with noting the physical feeling of your cervix through touch, check out it's changing fluid with sight, scent and taste to interpret it's messages.

"Know thy mucus as thyself" says Jeannine Parvati Baker. Super wet, slippery and sweet makes a pretty good match for seminal fluid and assists the soldiers on their journey. If pregnancy is desired, enjoy letting nature take it's course! Otherwise, be creative in abstaining from the one and only act in this world that creates new human life until your cervix and it's secretions tell you it's closed to new souls. The smart man who goes beyond loving his woman to learning her can employ his own senses as well and be a responsible partner in consciously conceiving, or not.

If a human life has been created and gestated to near completion you may be led to believe that it's necessary for a professional to assess the state of your cervix. I'm here to tell you that's just not so!
Do not be intimidated by protocol and know that it is perfectly fine to graciously decline a standard cervical check from a care provider at any time in your pregnancy and labor if you feel safer waiting for evidence-based reasons to do so. Towards the end of your pregnancy you'll likely be curious to know if your cervix has begun to dilate, promising your baby's birth is near. The ideal scenario is already having intimate knowledge of your cervix and being able to find this information out for yourself as you are much more likely to be gentle, limiting discomfort and exposure to infection, not to mention you're the expert and will know how different things feel. Is the opening to your womb feeling wider, stretching over a tiny head? Sweet!! Is there really a need to determine centimeters when the main message is that your baby is making it's way through your body, and will be in your arms sooner or later?

There's been a pretty exact science developed to assess dilation and effacement of a cervix, but the problem is that each unique woman is less of an exact science and we don't fit into small boxes with narrow definitions so well. It would be nice if we were all so predictable as the Friedman Curve would like us to be, but it seems we are not and there are many who believe cervical checks create expectations that can do more harm than good during labor. This was my experience with my first baby, being told I was only at 2 centimeters for hours and hours was so demoralizing, and being told to fight against my urge to push because I was not dilated enough was the most impossible and painful game of futile resistance I've ever played in my life. It can work the other way too though, with my second baby it was so encouraging to be checked and told I was at 6cm, and things continued to progress quickly after that.

The point is that it's your personal choice, one you should really think about before just letting someone arbitrarily exam you. To help, here are a few more links to information on the risks of vaginal exams and cervical checks, how they can affect the progress of your labor and the health of you and your baby.

I was excited to learn about this extremely cool way to externally check for dilation during active labor by counting fingers able to fit under the breastbone.

To learn more about Concious Conception, read Jeaninne & Rico's gem of a book.

And for education & fun, vist The Beautiful Cervix Project.