Re: [ozmidwifery] Cervix position and labour duration

[Lieve Huybrechts]

Hoi Simone,   I am independent midwife in Belgium and we send a lot of mothers to an osteopath for different reasons.   The position of the cervix often tells a lot over the position of the child, so when there is a posterior position in the baby you find mostly a posterior cervix. So it is important during pregnancy to inform mothers how to get an anterior position for their babys. An osteopath can help there to resolve tensions in the utero-sacrale ligaments.   I don't believe in vaginal examinations during pregnancy and I will seldom do it, I think it causes more harm than good. So I don't think that we have to check so for the position of the cervix. I would rather acces the position of the baby and help the mother to correct it by her behaviour.   I alsohave  a question for you: last week I had a homebirth. The mother had a long prelabor. She started on sunday morning and gave birth on monday evening. During labor she told me she had visited an osteopath who did vaginal techniques on her. So he indeed did twice a vaginal touche. He calls himself an energetic osteopath. I made a phonecall to him because I was  surprised and I needed a good explanation for the treatment he gives. I always try to convince women and gyns  that a vaginal checkup during pregnancy is not neccesary and possible harmfull and now there is again an osteopath who is doing it. He explained that he was thaught that most of women have leisures in the vagina and cervix, caused by vaginal infections. He massages them and he promises a fast and easy birth.( not so in this case) Do you have some more information over this treatment? I want to be informed about what happens to the pregnant women.   warm greetings Lieve   From: Simone Keddy To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 5:34 AM Subject: [ozmidwifery] Cervix position and labour duration Hi all,  I just have a question that some of you may be able to help me with.  I am an osteopath with a special interest in osteopathic care during pregnancy, having done post graduate studies in the UK.    One of the things we learnt about in our course was the position of the cervix and how that could affect the rate of dilation during labour.  The theory being that if the cervix is held posteriorly then the uterine contractions will not be pushing the baby's head directly over the cervix and thus decrease the rate of dilatation.   AS part of my course I spent some time observing midwives in the hospital setting in the UK.  I discussed this with them and they told me that they recorded the position of the cervix as being posterior or not during labour, but did not correlate this to predicted outcome.   So after all that blurb.. what I wanted to know is: in Australia is the position of the cervix noted? and secondly is there any correlation made to rate of dilation of the cervix?   I was wanting to know peoples opinion on this, since as an osteopath it is something that I could assess and offer some treatment for ( by addressing tension in the uterosacral ligaments etc.), thus hopefully helping the natural progression of labour.   I would be interested in any feedback that anyone may have.   And I must finish with saying that I really enjoy reading all the emails and I have learnt a lot from it. So thanks to all   Simone Keddy