Comments on Hobo Mama: Happy second stage of labor: Pushing preparation

I suppose this would assume that you have time to ...

2012-01-20T14:05:13.888-08:00

I suppose this would assume that you have time to "prepare" for pushing. With my third, I had a total of a 3 hour labor. Spent the first 2.5 hours trying to pre-register for a c-section that we were planning for the following morning. I didn't think I was in labor (if that tells you how mild the contractions were). Doctor went ahead and admitted me, I was at 4cm, he broke my water, and she was born 30 minutes later. If I'm remembering correctly, I had a total of 3 pushes. It was really rough, and I HATED it. I felt like I didn't have any control or made any conscious effort to push. I had an epidural with my 2nd, and had to consciously choose to tighten my muscles and push (I could feel her head moving, so it wasn't completely numb), and that was so much more of an exhilarating experience. I had a c-section with my first, so no pushing there :-P If you would like to read the details, I wrote about it on my blog: http://www.familybugs.net/Personal/Entries/2011/12/17_The_Labor_and_Delivery.html

This is a great post! I also loved the pushing sta...

2010-04-22T01:02:29.305-07:00

This is a great post! I also loved the pushing stage, it felt so productive after 10 hours of contractions. Every contraction I could feel my baby move that bit further down and I knew he was going to be here soon. I did yoga to strengthen my body and practiced my kegels and also did hypnobirthing which helped me so much with breathing down and not forcing him to come out. I ended up with two external stitches, superficial from the MW easing my lip out of the way, but no perineal tearing and a 10 pound 8 ounce baby!
x

Hey guys, I am new to this forum, but I love all t...

2010-04-19T12:57:46.079-07:00

Hey guys, I am new to this forum, but I love all the sharing about what has worked for everyone. Having an arsenal of options is always best, because you never know what will work and each delivery is different (I've had 3). I would love to add to the list of exercises. Developing a routine to strengthen your transversus abdominus (the true pushing muscle), your multifidi, your deep hip rotators, and your inner thighs are all very important to a healthy pregnancy and delivery. As a women's health physical therapist, take a look at www.hab-it.com for lots of informative blog entries on all of these muscles listed above.

My best to you all!

What an awesome tutorial on how to prepare for the...

2010-04-08T05:23:19.678-07:00

What an awesome tutorial on how to prepare for the pushing stage!!

I admit, I did not prepare myself anywhere near as much as you did. In fact I have declared that "the next time" I will do more kegels and squatting exercises - you've given me more to think about.

Thank you!

fabulous! I had a c-seection with my first and and...

2010-04-07T18:08:52.206-07:00

fabulous! I had a c-seection with my first and and unmedicatied VBAC with the second. I was so focused on finding a doc who would let me attemp a VBAC and learning all the stuff I should have learned about birth the first time around that I didn't do a lot of in depth studing anout each stage. If we have a third I hope to be even more prepared.

Paige: I will take that award. :) I wrote t...

2010-04-07T15:25:03.067-07:00

Paige: I will take that award. :) I wrote this very late at night, lol.

keepingmumsane: That's so sad! I hope preparing in advance will help next time. I just want to say that I didn't mean to suggest that if you don't prepare it's your fault that you can't push well or something — not that you're saying that, but I hope that's clear! I think it's just a way of helping our bodies get ready so that hopefully we can have a better experience.

Maman A Droit: Wow, what an odd situation you had. Here's hoping next time will go more routinely. I hear second births are often faster! That's completely anecdotal, by the way, but encouraging. :)

Melodie: Other cultures do squat a lot more, don't they? I'll see pictures of men squatting outside and chatting to each other, and in China the traditional toilets are troughs in the ground that you have to squat over. We've really made it in our culture that we don't squat routinely, so I knew if I wanted to do it during labor, I'd better get used to it beforehand!

Dr Sarah: All right, I'll promote perineal massage more strongly. lol My husband and I used to joke that we were doing perineal massage during sex, but I didn't put that into the article after I'd already put in a vagina joke...

As for staying off your back/bottom during labor, I totally agree in principle as well. I also like to advocate for alternative pushing positions and think if I'd stayed home as planned that I would have probably been on hands and knees or similar. But I will just say that I was really tired, and when a mother is tired she will naturally gravitate (ha!) to a sitting, back-lying position to rest. It's easy for a woman to talk about outside of the labor experience, but it's hard to put into practice during unless you have strong labor support — that's where the hospital was working against me, you know? And, who knows, maybe the resting in a position that didn't encourage the baby's descent slowed things down the proper amount. I don't think 1.5 hrs of pushing is that long, so maybe it would have gone too fast and torn more if I'd pushed exclusively in, say, a squatting position? Just speculating here.

Anyway, great thoughts! I hope more labor support professionals will know to encourage side lying rather than back lying or sitting if the mother is tired. Before the pushing phase, I was almost always standing, on hands and knees, or side lying, so it was really just during the pushing that the Hospital Bed Experience started.

Excellent tips which I'll vouch for. By the w...

2010-04-07T14:52:19.882-07:00

Excellent tips which I'll vouch for. By the way, perineal massage has been proved in a randomised trial to decrease your chances of tearing while having your first baby - so, I'll agree that it's boring as hell, but really is worth doing.

One other tip I have to add - On the pregnancy newsgroup I frequented, there was one guy who kept telling us over and over (and over and over and over....) again that it was absolutely crucial to stay off our backs/bottoms during labour because the sacral bone, the one at the back of the pelvis, is prevented from hinging outwards when you're sitting or lying down with your weight on it. He claimed that the pelvic outlet could open by up to 30% more if women were careful to adopt positions (left lateral, all fours, or squatting) that kept their weight off the sacrum. Now, I can't vouch for that specific figure and I couldn't find any studies comparing the effectiveness of the positions he advocated compared to positions that do put pressure on the sacrum. But, anatomically, what he's saying makes sense, and so I do now advise women to try to stay off their bottoms during labour.

I liked pushing too, even though I wasn't in m...

2010-04-07T09:25:23.661-07:00

I liked pushing too, even though I wasn't in my preferred position. One thing I wish I had done more of in general was squatting exercises - not that I really got to be in the position that I wanted anyway, but I always felt weak in that area due to not having enough leg strength. Women who want to squat to deliver need to know to practice. It doesn't always come easy in our culture so I think it's great you recommend it.

I didn't get to push- the contractions were ne...

2010-04-07T07:14:08.399-07:00

I didn't get to push- the contractions were never strong enough and I didn't dilate- but I'm hoping to next Baby, so it's good to know some things I can work on even now before I get pregnant again! Thanks for the tips :)

Terrific post. Pushing was my downfall. I've a...

2010-04-07T05:49:04.941-07:00

Terrific post. Pushing was my downfall. I've always had a weak pelvic floor and I just didn't prep it enough. I focused all my attention on pain management and perinum massage and squatting and I did great with those but just couldn't push my baby out. It turned out he was distressed and I had been trying to push for an hour so that had no choice but to use forceps.

I have bookmarked this for when I can convince hubby to try for no.2.

Well done.

Excellent post! I did kegels and squatting (and t...

2010-04-07T04:33:10.352-07:00

Excellent post! I did kegels and squatting (and the tailor sit) but skipped perineal massage.

And can I give you the award for the best line ever in a post?

"Hey, it's your vagina — you can do what you want!"

lol! Amen!