Which is more painful, internal examination or childbirth?

Internal examination is an examination method often used in hospitals. Internal examination can conduct a very thorough examination of a woman's uterus, but women will feel very painful during the process. People classify pain into ten levels, and childbirth is the highest level of pain. Childbirth is much more painful for women than vaginal delivery, but the way and degree of pain are different. So which is more painful, internal examination or childbirth?

Digital rectal examination (abbreviated as anal examination) is one of the necessary means to observe the progress of labor. Vaginal examination is only performed in the delivery room under strict disinfection when the labor is not progressing smoothly or there is suspected umbilical cord prolapse or the fetal presenting part is unclear during anal examination. As long as the mother can cooperate well, she will only feel slight discomfort in the anus. During the examination, the mother should lie on her back with her legs bent and spread apart, and push down as if she was having a bowel movement to relax the anus. When the midwife's right index finger, wearing a gloved finger and dipped in soapy water, gently inserts it into the rectum, the mother generally will not feel very uncomfortable. An anal examination is very short and only takes a few seconds to complete.

However, in practice, some pregnant women cannot accept anal examination and feel uncomfortable and in unbearable pain. In order to reduce the discomfort and pain of pregnant women, the progress of labor was observed by anal examination (vaginal examination when the anal examination was unclear) and direct vaginal examination to explore, observe and compare.

There was no statistically significant difference between anal examination and internal examination in terms of intrauterine infection, puerperal infection, perineal incision infection, etc.; there was no significant difference in fetal distress and neonatal asphyxia. However, according to statistics, anal examination causes more discomfort and pain to the mother than vaginal examination.

Anal examination can provide a clearer understanding of the mid-pelvis and the posterior half of the outlet plane than vaginal examination. Especially when a woman is admitted to the hospital for delivery and has her pelvic measurements done for the first time, anal examination is more appropriate than vaginal examination. The number of anal examinations during labor should be limited, generally not more than 5 times during the entire labor process. In case of abnormal labor, vaginal examination is helpful to understand the fetal position and pelvic condition, and is suitable for cephalopelvic scoring and determining the mode of delivery. In the case of unexplained vaginal bleeding before delivery, vaginal examination is irreplaceable by anal examination in order to understand the cause of bleeding and decide on the mode of delivery. From this it can be seen that anal examination and vaginal examination each have their own advantages and disadvantages, and the choice should be made based on the actual clinical situation, and they cannot be completely replaced.