Pushing on a Cervical Lip?

[MegBoz]

Anyone else push at 9.5 cm on a cervical lip - WITHOUT feeling the urge to push? I think this is something I've read about before here & it seems it's generally torturous.

My DD was posterior & during my HB attempt, my MW suggested I try to push while she held back the lip. It was awful. Like shoot-me-in-the-head painful. I wasn't feeling ANY urge to push at all, and when I tried to do so, I didn't feel DD moving down at all, so it wasn't feeling productive or effective and it was absurdly painful. I also tried pushing at 9.5 cm without my MW reaching in to hold back the cervix & it was also nearly as bad.

[nadia105]

I did with my third, and I agree that it was excruciatingly painful.  That labor was *really* super painful, and pushing when my mw was holding the lip back was awful.  It was worth it in the end though, b/c he wasn't born too much later, but I really had to work to get him out.  He was malpositioned (nuchal hand right on his cheek) and that had made my labor even longer than my first babe, I was so ready to get him out!

[allisonrose]

Yup, done it. We suspect my son was posterior during much of my labor but turned towards the end. I also attempted a homebirth. Midwife suggested the holding back the lip while I pushed and it was so incredibly painful that I couldn't truly push. I did try some easy pushing without her holding back the lip which wasn't more painful than a contraction without pushing, but it wasn't productive either. I ended up transferring and was given IV pain relief and pit and I pushed my son out just to get labor over with! (The urge to push kicked at some point.)

nadia105 - How long was your labor with your third? My first labor was heavily augmented with pit (hospital birth, water broken, GBS+) and about 24 hours from water breaking till my son was born. My second was incredibly long - at least 36 hours of active labor. I have no idea what will happen if I go for a third....

[nadia105]

Originally Posted by allisonrose 

Yup, done it. We suspect my son was posterior during much of my labor but turned towards the end. I also attempted a homebirth. Midwife suggested the holding back the lip while I pushed and it was so incredibly painful that I couldn't truly push. I did try some easy pushing without her holding back the lip which wasn't more painful than a contraction without pushing, but it wasn't productive either. I ended up transferring and was given IV pain relief and pit and I pushed my son out just to get labor over with! (The urge to push kicked at some point.)

nadia105 - How long was your labor with your third? My first labor was heavily augmented with pit (hospital birth, water broken, GBS+) and about 24 hours from water breaking till my son was born. My second was incredibly long - at least 36 hours of active labor. I have no idea what will happen if I go for a third....

My third was 14 hours -- I was stuck at 8 cm for over 6 hours of that :(. Not horribly long, but my first was 13 hours (back labor, posterior until pushing) and my second was only 5 hours (virtually painless waterbirth).  I thought I had this NCB thing down after #2, but I got thrown a curve ball!

[allisonrose]

Originally Posted by nadia105 

My third was 14 hours -- I was stuck at 8 cm for over 6 hours of that :(. Not horribly long, but my first was 13 hours (back labor, posterior until pushing) and my second was only 5 hours (virtually painless waterbirth).  I thought I had this NCB thing down after #2, but I got thrown a curve ball!

Oops, I read your post wrong. I thought I read that it was your second labor that was long. But it was interesting to hear the lengths of your labors.
 

[seaheroine]

DD2 was stuck by a cervical lip.  My body was pushing really strongly on it's own though, unbearably so, but she was definitely stuck on it.  She wasn't posterior, but it was excruciating.  She was held back just at the end, though, and when MW held the lip back (on the birth stool) she practically somersaulted out.  Literally felt like she fell out. 

I'm really sorry about your long labor and tough birth.  I read your birth story and really felt for you, I don't know if I could have lasted that long!

[Evergreen]

Yes. Pushing on a lip with no urge to push sucks. I will never do it again. I tried with my 2nd baby and I just exhausted myself. It took 8 hours for the cervix to fully dilate but once it did she flew out in 2 involuntary pushes. I will wait for that again.

[lapoucelle]

I'm sorry, that is so awful! With my first the nurse in the hospital pushed past the lip while I pushed and it was a very painful experience. With my second, my midwife suggested I try to push past it on my own - and after a few contractions I did. My first was posterior and my second wasn't-it's definitely more painful to labor and deliver a posterior baby!

[CookAMH]

I did with DS and ended up voluntarily transferring from the birth center for an epi which then lead to choosing an unnecessary c/s. This time, I am very much on alert to NOT do that again. What I needed, instead of the mw suggesting I push (which I could have declined, but you're so vulnerable, and I know better now), was different positions to continue laboring in. I wasn't ready to push and pushing without help from my body got me nowhere. I'm assuming it must have worked in the past for some women for her to suggest it (25 years experience), but I'm wondering if especially for a first-time mom, this is NOT something to do.  My labor wasn't even going on long in the first place, but DS must have turned posterior some. What I needed was help to get him to shift and turn (ie a variety of positions), not pushing. My labor was GREAT until then (well, except what was a long transition, likely due to his position. Again, pushing wasn't the answer).