Pelvimetry

For those who don't know what this is, it's usually a vaginal exam plus external exam that tells you the shape of your pelvis, at least the guesstimated shape. If you are found to have a "smaller than average" pelvis, this does not mean birth will be harder for you because your pelvic ligaments stretch and baby's head molds too, so there is no way of knowing.

I myself was very curious, my midwife doesn't do pelvimentary only because she doesn't see the point, and has concern that if "results" show a "small pelvis" then the mom would be discouraged from birthing, or have doubts. This didn't stop my curiosity. I didn't do a vaginal exam, but did do external palpitations and was amazed. My pelvis is not only normal, or if anything on the larger side because I'm on the larger side, but it was amazing how different positions change the shape of the opening, and the amount it opens. I think the pregnancy insomnia is kicking in, so there I was, laying in bed, on my side with one leg thrown over Phillip and trying to fall asleep. In one Ina May Gaskin book, she talks about putting one hand on your pubic bone and one on tail bone and move around and see how they move. This is usually the widest part of your pelvis, babies rarely (unless transverse) have issues passing through it. The Ischial points are the narrowest and can be felt as you make your way around your pelvis. It was really easy for me to find these points when side lying. I then kept fingers on both those points, which was around the front of each cheek, and move to different birthing positions. I moved from side lying to on my back, the typical position you see women birthing in, knees pulled up, an chin tucked, and I was SHOCKED how extremely narrow the opening got. No wonder moms have trouble so much and no mom without meds chooses this position to birth in, her body usually tells her, "Excuse me, do you want this baby out? If so, you better get off your back and open up!" Then moved to what is known as a labor squat, if you don't know what that is, it's better defined as a "crouch", feet flat, and knees all the way bent to bottom drops. I was then SHOCKED SHOCKED SHOCKED how wide the opening got from one ischial point to the other. If I had to guess, I'd say the difference between one the back and squatting was easily an extra CM or two. How much difference would this make if more women were encouraged to birth in this position. Even with a "walking" dose epidural you can still maneuver into this position. Not to mention, the amount of epsiotomies, vacuum, forceps, and cesarean sections it would eliminate!

I highly recommend women do this, mainly to get to know your body. Yeah it's weird, but the 20 seconds is worth the knowledge you gain. You don't have to let anyone know you did it, as yes, you may get weird looks, but seriously, it's not worth now knowing in my opinion.