Internal vaginal examinations

Your caregiver may ask you if they can perform an internal vaginal examination during prelabour. This is usually aimed at confirming if it is actually prelabour or if the labour is progressing and more established, despite the appearance of only prelabour contractions.

Vaginal examinations are often referred to as a VE and are generally used to:

	See if you are in active labour on arrival to the hospital or birthplace.
	Check to see if the waters have broken.
	Check the progress of labour at intervals (usually every 4 hours or so).
	Check the position of the baby, if your caregiver is unsure how the baby is lying by feeling your pregnant belly. The cervix needs to be at least 3 to 4 cms dilated to achieve this.
	Help you and / or your caregiver make decisions about interventions or pain relief.
	Break the waters to speed up labour or to put an internal fetal monitor on the baby's head to monitor their heart rate.

Image 3-19 shows the caregiver carrying out an internal vaginal examination to feel how open the cervix is. The cervix here is about 4 cms dilated

Vaginal examinations can be encouraging if the cervix is dilating. For some women they help them to pace themselves or motivate them if they know they are 'getting there'. However, other women find internal examinations very disheartening, especially if they feel they have done a lot of work, only to hear their caregiver say "You are only 1cm dilated."

Not all women (and caregivers) require regular internal vaginal examinations. If you feel your body is giving you enough information and the labour appears to be progressing normally, then they are not absolutely necessary.

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