As your pregnancy progresses, your cervix can come under pressure from the weight of your baby, amniotic fluid, and membranes. If your cervix is weak, it may start to shorten and widen.

Once you’re past your first trimester, there's a risk that your cervix could start to open from inside your womb (uterus). This may lead to your waters breaking early, causing a late miscarriage, or a very premature birth.

That's why your obstetrician will suggest treatment to protect your baby. One option is a stitch (cervical cerclage) to keep your cervix closed.

You can have ultrasound scans via your vagina to monitor how well your cervix is holding up. The treatment your obstetrician offers will depend on your circumstances, and what may have happened in any previous pregnancies.

You'll be offered a stitch in your cervix if:

A stitch is usually inserted between 16 weeks and 24 weeks of pregnancy. Later than this, up to 27 weeks plus six days, your doctor can put in a "rescue stitch", if it looks like your cervix is starting to open.

A cervical stitch is usually put in place via your vagina. In rare cases, the procedure happens via your tummy. This is called transabdominal cervical cerclage and your obstetrician will put in the stitch at the top of your cervix using keyhole surgery (laparoscopy). You will either have a regional anaesthetic, or be asleep under a general anaesthetic.

Whichever procedure you have, you can usually can go home the same day, provided you can walk and have been for a wee. You will have regular appointments with doctors at the antenatal clinic to check that you are doing well.

After the operation, you could have cramps and spotting or light bleeding, and a slight fever. These symptoms should settle after a few days.

Your doctor will advise you about how much rest you'll need after the operation, and whether and when it'll be safe to have sex again, should you feel like it.

Contact your hospital’s maternity unit straight away if you notice:

Your obstetrician will remove the stitch when you've reached about 36 weeks to 37 weeks. If your stitch was carried out via your vagina, you won’t need any pain relief, and you may be able to go home a few hours later.

You may go into labour within a day of the stitch being removed. But it may be days or even weeks before contractions start.

If you’ve had your stitch put in via an abdominal operation, you’ll need to give birth to your baby by caesarean section. In this more unusual situation, the stitch is left in place. It won't entirely seal your cervix, so you'll still bleed naturally after the birth (lochia).

If you think you are going into labour before your stitch is removed, you should go straight to your hospital’s maternity unit. Tell the staff that you have a cervical stitch. Leaving the stitch in place during labour could cause serious damage to your cervix.

If your waters break early but you are not in labour, the stitch will usually be removed because of risk of infection. The team looking after you will advise you of the best timing for this to happen.

Having a cervical stitch isn’t right for every woman. Another treatment for a weak cervix is prophylactic vaginal progesterone. High doses of progesterone help to prevent labour from starting too early. You'll have the progesterone as a pessary that's inserted into your vagina.

If you haven't had a previous late miscarriage or premature birth, but a scan shows that your cervix is shortening or opening you'll be offered prophylactic vaginal progesterone.

If a scan shows your cervix is shorter than usual, and you’ve had at least one previous late miscarriage, or premature birth, you may be offered prophylactic vaginal progesterone or a stitch or a combination of both.

There's another option, called the Arabin pessary, that's being trialled in some UK hospitals. You may want to ask your obstetrician about it. The Arabin pessary is a soft silicone ring that encircles your cervix to help keep it closed.

The reason treatments other than a cervical stitch may be considered is that a stitch isn’t risk-free. It could:

Your obstetrician will discuss the risks with you beforehand, and help you to decide whether or not to go ahead with it.

Talk to other mums who've had a cervical stitch in our friendly and supportive community.
Last reviewed: October 2017 Is it safe to have cervical cerclage (stich) at 27 weeks pregnancy. Pls suggest. 2017 June had a stich at 14 weeks, at 21 weeks had premature labour with the stick in, my son was so tiny , did not survive. This year am at 13 weeks now scheduled for a stich on the 30th July . Am scared since the last one failed and was assured it would protect my preggy, but am hopeful. The OBG said I had an infection and later diagnosed me with protein S deficiency and now with this one am taking clexane shots to my tummy. Whole tummy is bruised and sore at times but am hopeful I had a late miscarriage at the end of the fifth month of my pregnancy, and had cervix rupture in cross section so about 1 cm of the cervix is torn and able to move with the opening of the cervix and still connected to one side. Now I am 7 week pregnant. My doctor What happened has never seen it before and I need cerclage after being sure the baby is healthy. Is it enough? and could lead into in the future. Thank you for your time.
[null, {"document_url": "https://www.babycentre.co.uk/x4350/my-doctors-suggested-a-cervical-cerclage-what-is-it", "unformatted_src": "https://assets.babycenter.com/ims/2015/01/Joe-Aquilina.jpg", "src": "https://assets.babycenter.com/ims/2015/01/Joe-Aquilina.jpg", "formatted_filename": "Joe Aquilina"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.babycentre.co.uk/x4350/my-doctors-suggested-a-cervical-cerclage-what-is-it", "unformatted_src": "https://assets.babycenter.com/ims/2012/01jan/FetalDev_Reg_Bottom.jpg", "src": "https://assets.babycenter.com/ims/2012/01jan/FetalDev_Reg_Bottom.jpg", "formatted_filename": "FetalDev Reg Bottom"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.babycentre.co.uk/x4350/my-doctors-suggested-a-cervical-cerclage-what-is-it", "unformatted_src": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb_sm_sq.jpg", "src": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb_sm_sq.jpg", "formatted_filename": "P drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV d ncMihb sm sq", "alt_text": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.babycentre.co.uk/x4350/my-doctors-suggested-a-cervical-cerclage-what-is-it", "unformatted_src": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb_sm_sq.jpg", "src": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb_sm_sq.jpg", "formatted_filename": "P drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV d ncMihb sm sq", "alt_text": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.babycentre.co.uk/x4350/my-doctors-suggested-a-cervical-cerclage-what-is-it", "unformatted_src": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb_sm_sq.jpg", "src": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb_sm_sq.jpg", "formatted_filename": "P drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV d ncMihb sm sq", "alt_text": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.babycentre.co.uk/x4350/my-doctors-suggested-a-cervical-cerclage-what-is-it", "unformatted_src": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb_sm_sq.jpg", "src": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb_sm_sq.jpg", "formatted_filename": "P drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV d ncMihb sm sq", "alt_text": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.babycentre.co.uk/x4350/my-doctors-suggested-a-cervical-cerclage-what-is-it", "unformatted_src": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb_sm_sq.jpg", "src": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb_sm_sq.jpg", "formatted_filename": "P drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV d ncMihb sm sq", "alt_text": "https://imageserve.babycenter.com/15/000/079/P4drmETAeGKDGzHIXdafrYV1d1ncMihb"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.babycentre.co.uk/x4350/my-doctors-suggested-a-cervical-cerclage-what-is-it", "unformatted_src": "https://assets.babycenter.com/ims/2018/04/UK_MBTW_screenshot_2018.jpg", "src": "https://assets.babycenter.com/ims/2018/04/UK_MBTW_screenshot_2018.jpg", "formatted_filename": "UK MBTW screenshot"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.babycentre.co.uk/x4350/my-doctors-suggested-a-cervical-cerclage-what-is-it", "unformatted_src": "https://assets.babycenter.com/ims/2018/04/UK_Bulletin_screenshot_2018.jpg", "src": "https://assets.babycenter.com/ims/2018/04/UK_Bulletin_screenshot_2018.jpg", "formatted_filename": "UK Bulletin screenshot"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.babycentre.co.uk/x4350/my-doctors-suggested-a-cervical-cerclage-what-is-it", "unformatted_src": "https://assets.babycenter.com/ims/2012/11/partner_registration_coupon.jpg", "src": "https://assets.babycenter.com/ims/2012/11/partner_registration_coupon.jpg", "formatted_filename": "partner registration coupon"}, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "https://www.babycentre.co.uk/x4350/my-doctors-suggested-a-cervical-cerclage-what-is-it", "unformatted_src": "https://assets.babycenter.com/ims/2018/02/1505018456_flic-1-6.jpg", "src": "https://assets.babycenter.com/ims/2018/02/1505018456_flic-1-6.jpg", "formatted_filename": "flic", "alt_text": "water birth at home"}, null]