Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Late Pregnancy

Question:
As I get further and further along, I am finding it so uncomfortable to lay flat on my back, and started to feel quite faint the other day as I was laying down and feeling baby. No big deal; everything I have read has said that this is pretty common in late pregnancy, and I just rolled over onto my side, and everything was fine. But what I am wondering is this...either next appointment or the one after that, my doctor is going to do an internal exam at my appointment. It just struck me today that this is going to mean laying on my back even longer than I did the other day when I started to feel faint, and I don't think I can do it! So, for all of you that have BTDT, how do you handle late pregnancy exams? Did you have this problem at all? Is there anything you did that helped prevent you from feeling faint?

Answer:
Just refuse the internal exam. It doesn't provide any useful or actionable information unless there's a medical reason to induce your labor (in which case, it can tell your provider how likely an induction is to succeed and whether cervical ripening agents should be used). Practitioners mainly do it out of habit and a belief that they should, but it's really not necessary or even particularly advisable. That will at least reduce the amount of time you're lying on your back. Why? The only internals I've had either pregnancy were when I was in labour prior to having an epidural. I didn't have any internals at all with #2. I wouldn't have them unless they're totally necessary. As routine late pregnancy internal exams are useless and may increase the risk of infection, why would you allow them anyway? Avoid them unless there's a darned good reason. You don't even need them during labor, except maybe to determine if you're fully dilated. You might choose a few more here or there for reasons that make sense to you, but certainly if you're dreading it, there's no reason to have any more than strictly necessary! With my first two pregnancies, I didn't have *any* late pregnancy exams. With my second, I had some during a week of false labor trying to figure out if things were really happening or not (all at my request--they'd have been happy not to check if I didn't want it, and they didn't really provide much in the way of actionable information). With my third, I had a couple trying to figure out if she was breech or not because they were having a devil of a time figuring it out from palpation (she was in an odd position). I had very few exams during labor as well, because I did *not* like to be on my back either. If you choose to have an exam, you could probably arrange to be slightly elevated so that you're not *flat* on your back. That might make it easier.