What does it mean for a pregnant woman to have her membranes stripped?

Описание: When you get further along in your pregnancy and go to your prenatal appointment, like at 36-37 weeks, the doctor will start checking your cervix. And when you're 38-39 weeks, your doctor might say, "Hey, let's strip your membranes." And a lot of women are like, "That sounds kind of scary. What is that?" And basically what it's doing is stirring up the cervix. It irritates the cervix, and it can cause you to contract, and those contractions may or may not lead to labor. Now, a lot of people think that labor is contractions, but the true definition of labor is actually cervical change. So those contractions may or may not make your cervix start dilating, which means you're in labor. It's about 50/50. Some women who have their membranes stripped go into labor within 24 hours, and some just hurt and cramp for a little while after, and it doesn't turn into much more than that.

But one of the beauties of pregnancy is that towards the end, you're so uncomfortable that you're willing to do whatever it takes to get your baby out. So is stripping the membranes uncomfortable? Yeah, it definitely can be. Now a vaginal exam, in and of itself, is not comfortable. It's not something that women look forward to, but it's just more uncomfortable, not painful. When your membranes are stripped, it adds an additional level of pain, because what the doctor is doing, if your cervix has dilated at all, they're sticking their finger up inside and then manually separating the cervical membranes from the amniotic sac. So basically, again, it's just irritating the cervix, and that hurts for the few seconds while they're doing it, and then you may cramp or contract for a period of time during the day. And again, it might lead you to go into Labor & Delivery, and your cervix has changed, and you get to have a baby.

I say if your doctor is going to do it for you, it's worth a shot. There's nothing dangerous about it, it's not going to hurt anything. It could just help. Even if you don't go into labor, it might help to speed up the ripening process - the process your body has to go through in order to prep for labor. Because in the days to weeks leading up to pregnancy, your cervix needs to ripen. That's the actual medical term we use - just like a fruit. So when it's not ripe, it's way far back in your pelvis, the cervix is thick, and it's hard in consistency. And when it's ripened, it's moved forward in your pelvis, it's thinned out, and it's softened in consistency. And stripping the membranes can actually help this process along to if it doesn't help you go into labor. So hopefully it just shortens the amount of time you have to be pregnant after the doctor has done it.

With all of this in mind, it's not good to encourage labor early, because the definition of full-term is 37 weeks, but babies do best if they're born after 39. So this is why your doctor won't do it until you're closer to 39 weeks, because they don't want to be responsible for you having a baby a little bit early that might have a higher chance of having breathing issues, jaundice, or breastfeeding issues, because even babies between 37 and 39 weeks sometimes come out with organs that aren't fully mature, and this does give them a greater chance at having issues like jaundice, breastfeeding problems, or breathing problems. Good luck with everything, and if you have any other questions for me in the future, feel free to ask them on our Facebook page at   / intermountainmoms  , and recommend us to your friends and family too.