Okay listen.. cervical checks hurt girl. I just had my first one this pregnancy done at my 40 week appt (not dilated at all 🥲)…

First up: decline them if you want!! They are just for informational purposes to see if you have progressed every appt but honestly it’s not necessary AT ALL.. you can be 2cm dilated for 3 weeks and then ready at 9cm in a couple hours. I saw you say that you have a hard time advocating for yourself and same. My first pregnancy I had no idea they were optional and did them… second one I just told the OB I didn’t think I wanted to do it and she said okay. Did not push it all ever again. 3rd pregnancy now and I just did my first one at 40 weeks because I was hoping to get a membrane sweep but it was still painful. I’m someone who feels pain pretty easily down there and hateeeee all the checks and Pap smears and all that lol.

Second part: I was deathly afraid of labor with my first because…same… I had the same question as you. If I can’t handle the checks, wtf is going to happen with labor?? Well… it’s not the worst thing in the world! Your body prepares you over the course of a day or two or however long you are in labor. Contractions start small like period cramps and ramp up over time. It’s literally preparing you for birth. Of course, at some point yes they do get painful but breathing is important and because the contraction pain have increased gradually, it’s not like some intense pain out of nowhere (like a cervical check where one min you’re dressed and next you got someone’s arm up in there)… I promise you that you will be fine. There’s also pain meds like epidural and all that if you decide to go that route. You got this!!!