How do midwives check the baby's head being engaged?

[Mango401]

So have noticed on a few posts about people saying the baby's head is engaged 2/5 etc.. How do the midwives check this? I'm 34+4 and have my next midwife appointment next week, will they check then?x

[suzie_27]

My midwife checked at my 36week appointment. Basically made a c shape with her thumb and finger and pushed down hard in my groin haha. Its uncomfy for like a second. Ive heard different midwives say different things about the numbers like some say 4/5 is alot but some say 4/5 is only a little bit in..... X

[Hidden]

Yes as suzie_27 said, in different areas they mark engagement of the head differently....they can basically use the fifths system either way....so 4/5 can be practically fully engaged or it can mean just a tiny bit. Remember to confirm this with your mw to see what way they do it as it confused the hell out of me lol x

[suzie_27 in reply to Hidden]

Yeah i got excited when i read 4/5 in my notes. Turns out that's only a little bit engaged for me lol. Hopefully we are further next time!

[Hidden in reply to suzie_27]

Lol! Fingers crossed for ya! x

[Mango401]

Ah I see! I thought there was be an examination or something, thank goodness there's not as really really not looking forward to them!!x

[NanKing]

Yes, sounds a bit horrid but in a way it's like the MW is trying to put her hand round baby's neck! The engagement refers to how much of the babies head can be felt above the brim of your pelvis so if the midwife writes 4/5s that usually means she can feel most of the head but the top of baby's head is in the pelvis. However as people point out it's also that she means that 4/5s of the baby's head is in the pelvis - so she can only feel 1/5 above babies neck. It's confusing - I think the are encouraged to use the first way but not every midwife does - my 1st midwife did it the second way and so I too was very over-excited to discover that I was 4/5s in my second pregnancy! Also, and I know you weren't asking about this!: There's not really any point in a midwife doing a vaginal examination until baby's head is engaged because that is when the cervix will start to open - so not til the due date approaches. Even then it is your decision whether to allow a vaginal exam. Once labour starts checking the dilation of the cervix can help to indicate the progress of labour and you might want to know how things are going (but as some women on here will tell you it is possible to go from 4cms to almost fully dilated far faster than expected so there's a limit to how much you can predict from them) but if you are really upset by the idea (and without wishing to get too far into it all some women have very understandable reasons to really hate having a stranger doing something which in any other context would be a violation) you can discuss with your midwife before what your options are - some women choose to keep V.E.s to a minumum (rather than having one every hour as happens in some places) or to decline them altogether. Quite aside from the upset they can cause the feeling of being tested and measured all the time can slow labour down for some women and they have been shown to carry a risk of infection - even when the MW uses proper infection control procedure the exam is always taking bacteria from the vagina up the birth canal to the cervix. Sorry for waffling on but it's just another one of those things presented as totally inevitable to women, which should be offered with all the options made clear. All the best with the next 5 or so weeks! x