Midwifery Today Community

We've had a string of these lately.  For some reason, we are seeing a few moms who are complete, yet have that thin cervical lip hanging on.  For once client, the cervix was coming down with the baby's head.  We tried ice which helped greatly and did some gentle pushing of the cervix during a contraction.  It all worked out in the end but I'm wondering if there is anything that can be done prior to seeing this. 

Moms like us because we tell them that we don't routinely do VE.  So then how would we find an asyclitic head and save our moms hours of hard labor?  How do we find an anterior lip that could have been corrected with position changes had we known about it?  (I guess this question has two parts.)  This doesn't happen often but because it happened twice in one week made me think more about it.  Any suggestions?

Thanks ladies!

It's a fine line isn't it?  For me, it's always about trusing my instinct.  With no VE to tell me what the cervix is doing I look at mama's face.  If there is a deep satisfaction look there then my gut tells me it's okay.  If I read something else then a VE might be called for.  It's hard to be completely hands off in every birth, isn't it?

Here's a link to a recent discussion we had about this;

http://community.midwiferytoday.com/forums/p/611/2847.aspx#2847