I've gotten really interested lately in the idea of the "premature urge to push."
So I had always heard that one of the Really Bad Things that can happen during labor is for the mother to start feeling pushy before she's 10 cm dilated. Premature pushing, I've heard, can result in all sort of horrible things like a torn cervix, swollen cervix that makes it impossible for the baby to come out, that sort of thing.
I've had a couple friends who had easy labors up until they had a premature urge to push, and were told that they couldn't push. They said their labors were fantastic up until the point where they had to resist the pushing urge.
But then lately I've also been hearing that maybe the best thing, in a low-intervention natural birth setting, is for the mother to listen to her body and push when she feels pushy.
This article tackles the topic and makes a pretty compelling case that there is no such thing as a premature urge to push.
"First let me say that a non medicated woman will never push so hard against her undilated cervix that it tears, because it will hurt. Pain is a natural deterrent to pushing too hard. However, when done in the correct manner, pushing to help rotate a baby and dilate oneself will actually eliminate a great deal of pain and cut hours off one’s labor and birth."
I also have a friend who is training to be a family practitioner, but before going to med school actually did midwifery training because she wanted to be more like a midwife than a doctor. She said that in the clinic she trained at on the US-Mexico border, they just let the unmedicated woman push as she wanted to, regardless of dilation, and that they never had any problems.
I'm wondering if anyone has any evidence-based information on this (not based on women in the 1950s strapped down and drugged out of their minds, but current information looking at natural births). Does it actually hurt women to tell them to resist the pushing urge at 5 or 6 cm? Will their body guide them through that grunty, bearing down stage and actually help them dilate faster? Are the Really Bad Outcomes that you hear about a valid concern?
So I had always heard that one of the Really Bad Things that can happen during labor is for the mother to start feeling pushy before she's 10 cm dilated. Premature pushing, I've heard, can result in all sort of horrible things like a torn cervix, swollen cervix that makes it impossible for the baby to come out, that sort of thing.
I've had a couple friends who had easy labors up until they had a premature urge to push, and were told that they couldn't push. They said their labors were fantastic up until the point where they had to resist the pushing urge.
But then lately I've also been hearing that maybe the best thing, in a low-intervention natural birth setting, is for the mother to listen to her body and push when she feels pushy.
This article tackles the topic and makes a pretty compelling case that there is no such thing as a premature urge to push.
"First let me say that a non medicated woman will never push so hard against her undilated cervix that it tears, because it will hurt. Pain is a natural deterrent to pushing too hard. However, when done in the correct manner, pushing to help rotate a baby and dilate oneself will actually eliminate a great deal of pain and cut hours off one’s labor and birth."
I also have a friend who is training to be a family practitioner, but before going to med school actually did midwifery training because she wanted to be more like a midwife than a doctor. She said that in the clinic she trained at on the US-Mexico border, they just let the unmedicated woman push as she wanted to, regardless of dilation, and that they never had any problems.
I'm wondering if anyone has any evidence-based information on this (not based on women in the 1950s strapped down and drugged out of their minds, but current information looking at natural births). Does it actually hurt women to tell them to resist the pushing urge at 5 or 6 cm? Will their body guide them through that grunty, bearing down stage and actually help them dilate faster? Are the Really Bad Outcomes that you hear about a valid concern?
interesting discussion! I have no idea how far along I was when I started pushing with my second and third... with my first I got to 10 cm, the contractions slowed down (and got less painful) and I had no real urge to push, at least at first... so really I don't know if it went past 10 or not. the last check I had with my second was around 7-8 cm, my baby was born about 20 minutes later, only 7 minutes of "pushing" (or rather, not pushing). My third I wasn't checked at all for the whole thing.
