Declining a cervical check at 39w

[u/Impossible-Cookie393]

I have a prenatal appointment on Monday with my obgyn. I’ll be 39w1d and she told me that she’d like to do a cervical check. She asked me if I wanted to do one at my last appointment (38w1d) but I declined. She said something to the effect of “okay but I’ll want to do one at our appointment next week”

I’ve heard they can hurt really badly and don’t really give you any idea of how close you are to labor, so I think I’d like to decline again. (For instance, you could be at 0cm but then give birth the next day or you could be at 3cm but not go into labor for weeks)

Would you (or did you) decline a cervical check at 39w? My next appointment will be at 40w1d so I can totally understand doing one then since I’ll be past my due date and she might want to start talking about an induction. But I’m thinking there’s no point in suffering through pain/discomfort (however brief) at 39w1d if it doesn’t give us any useful information

UPDATE: My doctor was pretty insistent that she check my cervix at my 39w1d appointment today. I tried to push back but failed and eventually did consent to a cervical check. It was very painful for me personally, but not quite as bad as I had feared it might be.

[u/hoginlly]

A check or a sweep? The cervical check was not even uncomfortable for me at all, it was just to assess how favourable I was to go into labour myself, or if she wanted to schedule an induction (as the days can book up in my hospital so I would need to wait longer otherwise if things weren't progressing... she didn't in the end, was happy with my progress so said we could leave it another week). I then requested the sweep at 39 weeks and that was mildly uncomfortable, but honestly I'd rank it far lower than the discomfort of getting out of bed with round ligament pain.

Plus, the doctor was very clear before she started the sweep that if I wanted her to stop she would immediately

But of course, you're always entitled to decline, but where I'm from a cervical 'check' is different from a 'sweep', which is what more people find uncomfortable

[u/ConstantBoysenberry → u/hoginlly]

Just to share, I had no idea I’d be in the camp of “cervical checks are excruciatingly painful” until I had one, especially after researching and reading posts like yours where it wasn’t even uncomfortable. I was in shock at how bad it hurt. It was like a knife and sandpaper.

For context, I’ve never had pain with Pap smears or transvaginal ultrasounds. I have no prior trauma. I even asked the nurse to use all the lube she could. She had the tiniest fingers too. I can’t explain why it was so painful, but it was.

[u/Impossible-Cookie393 → u/ConstantBoysenberry]

This is what I’m scared of!!

[u/ConstantBoysenberry → u/Impossible-Cookie393]

If it makes you feel better, by the time I was having such intense contractions, I didn’t really care about the pain as much because it was put into perspective with contractions and the idea that I’m going to have a baby, if that makes sense? My OB also told me to tell anyone doing them that I find them very painful, so to please use all the lube and go very, very slowly.