Can Stirrups Ever Be A Good Thing?

[trippingbillies]

I've had two babies(both with epidurals that stopped working right as both of their heads were beginning to crown).Each time, DH and a nurse held my legs for me..and I "helped" by pulling my legs back.
For me, this was tough. I was tried to pull my legs back in just the right way while DH was preoccupied with his "job" of holding my leg.
This next time I think I'd rather try stirrups so that a)I can focus solely on pushing and b)dh can focus solely on coaching me.
As long I'm in a sitting/semi sitting position,will this work? Also, do hospitals still strap laboring mothers to the stirrups? How does that work?

[USAmma]

I don't know if stirrups are a good thing. For me they were uncomfortable and my feet didn't fit well in them. They were not well padded and not at the right angle. I did much better with someone holding each leg. For my first birth it was my dh and a nurse.

Have you thought about natural birth?

[trippingbillies]

Originally Posted by USAmma

I don't know if stirrups are a good thing. For me they were uncomfortable and my feet didn't fit well in them. They were not well padded and not at the right angle. I did much better with someone holding each leg. For my first birth it was my dh and a nurse.

Have you thought about natural birth?

Oh,that's what I'm aiming for

[pfamilygal]

Mine were more like long troughs I could lay my legs on in between pushes. Then dh and the nurse helped me hold them for pushes. I eas semi-siiting with one and more reclined with the other. I wasn't strapped in and have never seen strap in stirryps at any hospital I have worked at.

[cottonwood]

Originally Posted by trippingbillies

Oh,that's what I'm aiming for

In that case, you might want to consider birthing in a vertical position in order to open the pelvis wider and let gravity assist. In which case stirrups would be irrelevant.

[Hayes]

My 2nd labor went very quickly. I was surprised at how fast. The nurses came in and broek the bed down. I put my feet up in the stirrups just to push myself back, but they felt HEAVENLY! Seriously, I loved having my feet up there. I was really comfortabel, go figure.

However, this was my smallest babe, and I still tore. With my 9lb2oz babe, no stirrups, I didn't tear. With my 10lb2oz babe, homebirthed, I didn't tear.

So, the good, the bad, and the ugly!

[Peppamint]

I pushed in the lithomy position with my feet planted on something like stirrups with my first baby. OUCH, my pelvic floor muscles were soooo sore and I was given the ol' episiotomy. :

Second baby was a waterbirth, when ds first started coming (I didn't push, he roared out) I was kneeling and sat back in dh's lap sitting upright when he crowned. Third baby was pushed out kneeling.

The 2nd and 3rd times were much easier- try pushing in an upright position, it's just so much better! No super sore pelvic floor muscles and no tears.

[sapphire_chan]

This thread is giving me the strangest mental image of a woman squatting to give birth while balancing on the footrests my gynacologist has.

[mamaverdi]

SC

[the_lissa]

I've not seen stirrups in the hospitals here.

[LittleLlama]

I had a natural birth at a hospital and did use stirrups. I wasn't strapped in to them, but they acted more like a midway "rest stop" between pushes where DH and the nurse helped fold my legs up.

[laohaire]

IMHO there's nothing wrong with stirrups per se... but pushing on a table in even a so-called upright position seems totally wrong to me. You can't really get upright on a table, not the part that counts at least (even if your head is up, your pelvis is still sideways). Worse, it keeps you from being mobile, since even though they don't strap you in, it's not exactly easy for a laboring woman to get on and off the table at will.

[sapphire_chan]

Actually, a sitting position is even just as bad as laying flat on your back because of how it pushes on your pelvis.

[rozzie'sma]

I stood up in the stirrups. They had handles and I pulled myself up off the table completely so I was kind of teetering in the things. Really made the OB nervous. And he tried to push my chest down but I almost fell off the table when he did that so he gave up

[Aura_Kitten]

Originally Posted by fourlittlebirds

In that case, you might want to consider birthing in a vertical position in order to open the pelvis wider and let gravity assist. In which case stirrups would be irrelevant.

SC - how much do you know about natural birth, anyway?

[Aura_Kitten]

Originally Posted by rozzie'sma

I stood up in the stirrups. They had handles and I pulled myself up off the table completely so I was kind of teetering in the things. Really made the OB nervous. And he tried to push my chest down but I almost fell off the table when he did that so he gave up

this scares me! stuff like this actually happens in hospitals nowadays?? :

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by klothos

SC - how much do you know about natural birth, anyway?

Whoops, should have said, just as bad as a laying down position. I'll fix that. All three positions, legs up, legs down and semi sitting are crappy positions and the way that epidurals and narrow hospital beds make those the only positions available to a majority of women should be considered a crime.

[huggerwocky]

I find pulling at the legs just as horrible, or at least that's how I felt at that time. Raped in a way. But maybe it's different with an epidural, I don't know. I wonder why they don't at least make the women sit on a birthing stool, so I tend to think :never a good thing.

[shelbean91]

W/my first 2, there were full leg stirrups- I held onto a handlebar w/dd that allowed me to pull myself up to a vertical position. W/ds, i didn't have that handlebar and the nurse/dh pulled my leg back- that was WAY harder. W/ds2, I ended up w/a csection, so completely different.

[boscopup]

When I was in the hospital, they put me in stirrups - no leg holding. They didn't have any straps - I think those went out in the 70s. My DH pushed my back up so I was sitting upright, but yeah, it's not the same as squatting or kneeling, which I really wanted to do. If I'd known ahead of time that I was going to be birthing in a hospital with OBs, I would have talked to the OBs and discussed positions. But things happened very quickly and I was in the hospital preterm, and the OB that ran into the room to catch the baby was one I'd never seen before. So there wasn't much I could do at that point, and I really was more worried about my baby being healthy. He wasn't even 4 lbs, and I tore, because I was in a bad position and was being directed to push with each contraction (which I wasn't feeling an urge to push after the first one, and I didn't feel the contractions during that stage).

If I am in the hospital with this one (it'd be for a preterm issue most likely, unless other complications arise like pre-e or something), I will definitely talk to my OB first about squatting or hands and knees positions. Tearing sucks! I've heard of many women using those positions in the hospital if they asked to do it, so it's worth mentioning to your doctor that you might want to try those positions (which one is right for you will depend on how you feel at the moment, of course). I do NOT want to deliver on my back again.