I saw this article from midwifethinking.com posted by another local doula, and I found it very interesting. I had an anterior cervical lip during my labor with my second daughter. I didn’t realize until I did a little research after my delivery that it isn’t uncommon. As this article states, at some point in labor, most women will have an anterior cervical lip. Whether or not it is detected depends on whether or not a woman consents to a vaginal exam. As doulas, we can not perform vaginal exams to check dilation, so we have to watch for other cues of what stage of labor the mother is in.  Also, it is becoming more and more common (at least where I live) for women to request to not have any vaginal exams during labor unless medically necessary. This means that the exact number of cms she is dilated is not information we will be privy to in a lot of labors we attend. It is important for us as doulas to understand what the anterior cervical lip is, and how the body works through it, so that we can then support the laboring woman to navigate this without fear or anxiety. Here is the article from Midwife Thinking below.

http://midwifethinking.com/2011/01/22/the-anterior-cervical-lip-how-to-ruin-a-perfectly-good-birth/