Vaginal examinations

During your labour, a midwife or doctor may ask to perform a vaginal examination. A vaginal examination is done for many reasons, e.g. to see if your waters are intact or broken and how open your cervix is. This involves them putting their fingers into your vagina and up to your cervix. This will only ever be done with your consent. A cervical sweep may be offered to help start your labour and this would also involve a midwife putting their fingers into your vagina and moving their finger around the cervix in a ‘sweeping’ motion.

If an examination like this could trigger trauma for you, please let your carer know so they can help ensure their care helps you in a way that suits you. If you would like a chaperone, you are free to request one at any time. There are other methods to assess progress in labour and if you opt for a vaginal examination this can be stopped at any time.

A vaginal examination is usually offered every 4 hours in your first stage of labour to see how dilated your cervix is. Sometimes, this may be offered sooner if we have intervened, for example by breaking your waters, or of there is concern for you or your baby.

During the second stage of your labour, you may be offered more frequent vaginal examinations to see where your baby’s head is, how far down it is, and the shape of the baby’s head. After you have given birth to your baby, your placenta will come out. If your placenta doesn’t come out by itself, you will be offered an examination.

The number of vaginal examinations will vary from person to person and from labour to labour. Not all labours progress the same and not everyone has the same circumstances and therefore the number you will be offered may be different. To perform any of these, your consent will be needed and you can always choose to say no. Your midwives and doctors will try not to do too many examinations as they are an infection risk.