Cervical Lips?

[iowaorganic]

I had a horrible cervical lip with #4 and am praying I don't have to go through that again.  I thought it was fairly uncommon- but after reading the 10 hrs of pushing thread- I am not so sure?  Soooo my midwife had to hold that lip out of the way for an hour at first- then  an additional 2 hours before I very quickly pushed out my baby.  Is this an indication that I will have one  this time?  My first 3 births were at the hospital- and I don't think it was a problem then...  I have been taking a supplement (ligaplex 2) in hopes of it helping- but this is the only thing that makes me nervous about my upcoming birth.  Any suggestions?  

[JamieCatheryn]

I had it with both my babies. I think it's common to have some dilation left to go at the end of first stage and it all be in the anterior of the cervix, but is rarely a problem, most just push past it without noticing, or hold off on pushing a little longer. Not sure if most women have a trend like this, anterior lip in the way for several babies, or it just happens in one time but not others. My advice from experience is don't recline in labor at all and do spend some time leaning forward in heavy labor even if you hate it. Don't push until you can't help it and don't bother getting checked unless you start pushing uncontrollably but there's pain or lack of progress. And if you do suspect there's a problem, check yourself, I did and told the MW what was going on, things felt less out of control when I was the one who declared it and chose to blow through pushing contractions for a while and hold back, and asked her to push it out of the way after a bit. My water forcefully broke on her while she did that though lol.

[sapientia]

Originally Posted by JamieCatheryn 

I had it with both my babies. I think it's common to have some dilation left to go at the end of first stage and it all be in the anterior of the cervix, but is rarely a problem, most just push past it without noticing, or hold off on pushing a little longer. Not sure if most women have a trend like this, anterior lip in the way for several babies, or it just happens in one time but not others. My advice from experience is don't recline in labor at all and do spend some time leaning forward in heavy labor even if you hate it. Don't push until you can't help it and don't bother getting checked unless you start pushing uncontrollably but there's pain or lack of progress. And if you do suspect there's a problem, check yourself, I did and told the MW what was going on, things felt less out of control when I was the one who declared it and chose to blow through pushing contractions for a while and hold back, and asked her to push it out of the way after a bit. My water forcefully broke on her while she did that though lol.

Great post-I like the advice. I had this with a couple of my kids, the worst one being with my 4 yo, it prolonged the pushing longer than any of my other births-usually pushing took literally, minutes-with my 4 yo it was several hours. I was completely flabbergasted at the difference.

[iowaorganic]

Well with mine I got to transition and then labor just stopped.  Which was a nice break- but I kinda just wanted to have my baby :)  She pushed it out of the way which took about an hour and labor progressed- but as soon as she stopped holding it out of the way labor stopped again.  It did not prolong pushing though- I have been a power pusher with all my kids and only pushed for 5 minutes with each of them....  

When you say lean forward- is that like hands and knees?  I will definitely give that a try :)  Thank You.

[JamieCatheryn]

Yeah hands and knees or leaning over a chair, ball, pillows, counter, whatever. In my last labor I intuitively knew I had to do it or I'd get stuck on that last bit again but it hurt so I didn't much. Most of my labor didn't really hurt unless I hated the position (I sat on the birth ball and refused to move elsewhere for the most part).