If you have reached or passed your due date, your health care provider may suggest sweeping the membranes. This is a somewhat common practice among obstetricians. The purpose is to help bring on labor.
Sweeping the membranes is a fairly simple process. It is often done during a vaginal exam when the doctor may also be checking the cervix for ripening. The doctor uses a finger to gently detach the amniotic sac from the wall of the uterus, near the cervix.
The worst part for the mother is the discomfort associated with the exam and the stripping of the membranes. Most women find the procedure to be uncomfortable. After the exam, you may experience a small amount of bleeding. Irregular contractions are also common following the stripping of the membranes.
There has been some debate for years over both the safety and effectiveness of this procedure. Some people feel that doing this could increase the risk of infection for both the mother and baby. They assert that the procedure isn’t very effective for inducing labor and isn’t worth the risk. So is it safe?
The Cochrane Group assessed 22 studies about stripping the membranes to determine the overall safety of the procedure. The good news is that across all the studies analyzed, there did not appear to be an increase in the incidence of infections in either the mothers or babies when compared to the women who did not have the membranes stripped.
Now for the bad news. It appears from all of the studies reviewed that the difference in terms of effectiveness is not statistically significant. This means that the group of women that had the membranes stripped did not have their babies much faster than the women who did not have the procedure. The group that did go into labor faster received something else in addition to the stripping of the membranes, either prostaglandin or pitocin.
In the end, it is up to you to decide if stripping the membranes is something you want to try. Since the risk of infection doesn’t appear to be a significant worry, it probably can’t hurt. However, you need to decide if the discomfort is worth the somewhat ambiguous results.
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