Pelvic Exam

amandaleigh92

Im at 23 weeks today. I still dont believe my dr has done a pelvic exam on me. She did a first ultrasound and looked at my cervix ect? Was that the exam? I feel kinda in the dark cause i went to my birthing class and the instructor said we all should have had one to make sure everything was okie for the baby. My friend had one done in the begining and it was more like... Sorry to be into detail but her dr had put his fingers in a felt around feeling her organs extra. Mine didn't do this. Is this wrong?

amandaleigh1

I think it is pretty standard to have a regular pelvic exam an pap smear at your first ob visit. I got to skip the pap because I had had one really recently. The nurse practitioner still had a look inside though all the same- and yes it involved feeling around in there.

 

It is funny-- we have the same first and middle names from the looks of things. That doesn't happen every day! 

greenmtbride

I have never had an internal exam with either pregnancy.  They are not necessary, and can introduce bacteria into your uterus.  Some doctors do internal exams when you are close to your due date.   I can't think of any reason why they would need to do one in the second trimester. 

dosafyre

With both my pregnancies...they did a standard pap smear test early on (which you should have felt because they use a little brush or heard the results of...as it goes along with the other standard blood tests they do for HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia, etc). Unless like the other poster said, you'd had a pap and exam fairly recently in the past? And they looked around but did't touch the cervix. And if it was early on in the pregnancy, they felt for the ovaries.

 After that, I turned down all other internal exams until I was in transition during labor (due to the possible introduction of bacteria)

Alli923

I did not have them with either of my pregnancies.  I'd had pap exams recently with my doc so another wasn't necessary.  There is really no reason to have one until the very end of pregnancy (even then it may not be necessary).

MrsH_08

I only had a pap smear, but no other internal exams. Not even at the end of the pg. It's not necessarily standard.

ETA: They did check my kidneys and ovaries at every u/s, just for signs of infection (which I never had). I had a LOT of u/s due to previa, so I had other organs checked frequently that way. 

 

Weird about the 2 amandaleighs. :-) 

Kathzoo

Yep, no reason to do an internal exam except to check labor progress.  And even then, you should carefully weigh the benefits of the information you will gain with the increased risk of infection.

fyziksgirl

I agree with the PPs, there is no need for pelvic exams.There is nothing they can tell is "OK for baby" by feeling around in your vagina. All it can tell you is if you're dilating, and even that is usually not useful or necessary information (unless you suspect preterm labor and need to confirm, or decide yourself you want to know how your labor is progressing, though that usually isn't linear so can be misleading). There are lots of other ways they're keeping tabs on you and baby, don't worry! Be happy you have a good doc who doesn't want to introduce potential infection for no good reason! :-D

Out of curiosity...what birthing class instructor said that???