Whats if any difference between stripping membranes and stretching during late pregnancy?
It appears that stretching the cervix and sweeping the membranes encourage labour. Clinicians have often “stirred things up” by cervical massage or introducing a finger through the cervix and sweeping the membranes from their application to the lower segment. This action releases prostaglandins by breaking the chorio-decidual integrity and initiates or enhances labour.
Stripping your membranes is when your dr. puts there finger in your cervix and and sweeps around the sides to try and break up your mucas plug. When they stretch your cervix she applies pressure to the sides and tries to slightly stretch your cervis open a little more. Both procedure and very similar and she may have preformed both procedures without you even knowing. They were both painless for me…. just a little uncomfortable. Usually they will do a membrane sweep if your not dialted that much and a stretch if your cervixis wide enough to fit two fingers into. Ultimately…. they are both preformed with the hopes to have the same outcome…. that being to start labor. These procedures didn’t do anything for me…. She did both of these starting when I was 38 weeks at each weekly appt. It did cause me to lose my mucas plug but I went two weeks overdue and then was induced. Hope if works for you though…. some women have great success and some nothing happens.
