What a sweet story! If I ever have another hospital birth, I hope I get a nurse like her!!
I love what she says about mother directed pushing. I had the whole doctor directed pushing thing with my first and well....I knew even then that that was NOT working for me. I couldn't make it past that first count to 10 without feeling like I was going to pass out, let alone 2 more counts to 10.
With my 2nd, I made it very very clear that I wanted to push on my own terms. My midwife was fine with that and allowed to push the way I felt right. She even told the nurses to hush when they were trying to get me to change up what I was doing, lol. (I ended up in the lithotomy position, on my own, feet on the squat bar, and pushing without putting my chin to my chest, I was actually rather stretched out-and pushing in these short little bursts, though I felt like doing it even in between contractions. It worked fine, my biggest baby to date was born in less than 10 minutes of pushing!) I've done it the same way with my others as well, always just doing what feels right to me at the time.
I just wish you saw that more often...doctor directed pushing just seems so...dumb?
