Childbirth: Vaginal Exams During Labor

During labor, your health professional will examine your progress by putting on sterile gloves and inserting his or her fingers into your Reference vagina Opens New Window. This allows the health professional to:

• Determine how much your Reference cervix Opens New Window has thinned (effaced) and opened (dilated). How dilated and stretched your cervix is during contractions can be helpful in predicting the speed of your labor.
• Assess the baby's position, whether head-first (vertex) or bottom-first (breech), and determine how far the baby has moved down the birth canal (station).
• Gently push on the baby's head with one finger. If the head can be pushed back, the baby is still floating (ballotable). If the head cannot be pushed back and is low in the pelvis, the head is engaged.
• Check whether the baby is facing toward your navel or toward your backbone in the birth canal. This can only be done after your water (Reference amniotic sac Opens New Window) breaks (ruptures). A baby facing toward the mother's navel sometimes has a slower, more difficult time moving down the birth canal.

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