Birth without pushing?

[Sparky Mum]

I had my midwife telling me to stop pushing because I 'wasn't ready'! I tried explaining to her that I wasn't trying to push and that I just couldn't stop it!

She didn't believe me! She told me to walk around, so I got out of bed, and as I stood up my body pushed again. She looked at me, said '...you're pushing aren't you?' (No Sh..!) She told me to lay back down so she could check me 'to stop me worrying' (whatever she meant by that), then the next thing she said was 'Oh, you're 10cm, push when you're ready then'.

The urge is so overwhelming, your body completely takes over. You push with your contractions anyway, so I guess yes you can give birth without deliberately pushing, your body could eventually do it on it's own but there are a lot of contributing factors like the position or size of the baby.

That being said, I'd always push! I wouldn't want to risk the baby getting distressed or draw it out any longer than necessary haha. It took me 40 minutes to get DD's head out then I got her entire body out in one contraction, they told me to stop (at the hips) if I needed to and wait but every part of me went 'nope!' and I did another tiny push and there she was!

That bloody woman... She wanted me to get up and walk around!

 

[BunnyN]

I could almost imagine breathing out my 1st as the pushing phase was relitively slow and layed back compared to the others.

With my second the pushing instinct was much stronger. He was a big baby with big head and the MW was concerned about tearing during crowning. She directed the pushing a lot for that last bit. It was really hard not to follow the urge to push him out with one push but I trusted her and worked hard to hold back, which wasn't easy to do but it seemed to work as all 11lbs of him was born without a tear.

With my third the need to push was insane. The midwife kept telling me to dial it back a bit because it was stressful for the baby not to get a break between pushes. I did my best but it was so strong an urge it was hard not to go with it. I went from 5cm to birth in something like 30 mins so it was all very intense!

 

[Hayz]

I did the ‘breathing’ the baby out. It just means that you don’t hold your breath to push, you breath out whilst bearing down. It took 3 mins to get baby out. If you can relax into it your body does all the pushing and you just have to kind of sit and wait. That’s assuming that baby is in a good position and not stuck. Breathing baby out doesn’t guarantee no tears though. I had more stitches with my hypnobirthed baby (21) than I did with my other two where I was laid on my back. 2nd degree tears for all 3 of them.

 

[Juice]

I think pushing when you don't feel ready is more likely to cause problems. If you get the urge then just go with what your body tells you. It is true though that babies can more or less birth themselves. The contractions can push the baby out without any effort from you if you're not capable for any reason.

 

[Juice]

I had my midwife telling me to stop pushing because I 'wasn't ready'! I tried explaining to her that I wasn't trying to push and that I just couldn't stop it!

She didn't believe me! She told me to walk around, so I got out of bed, and as I stood up my body pushed again. She looked at me, said '...you're pushing aren't you?' (No Sh..!) She told me to lay back down so she could check me 'to stop me worrying' (whatever she meant by that), then the next thing she said was 'Oh, you're 10cm, push when you're ready then'.

The urge is so overwhelming, your body completely takes over. You push with your contractions anyway, so I guess yes you can give birth without deliberately pushing, your body could eventually do it on it's own but there are a lot of contributing factors like the position or size of the baby.

That being said, I'd always push! I wouldn't want to risk the baby getting distressed or draw it out any longer than necessary haha. It took me 40 minutes to get DD's head out then I got her entire body out in one contraction, they told me to stop (at the hips) if I needed to and wait but every part of me went 'nope!' and I did another tiny push and there she was!

That bloody woman... She wanted me to get up and walk around!

I was 7cm and they broke my waters to put a monitor on the baby's head. As soon as they did that I had to push. They told me to stop because I wasn't fully dilated but I couldn't help it. With the next contraction she went from crowning to fully out in one push. And I didn't tear even a tiny bit! There's nothing I hate more than them telling you to do the opposite of what your body is trying to do. Don't fuck with nature! Because of them breaking my waters she was born too fast and wasn't breathing

 

[Sparky Mum]

I know it's so frustrating isn't it!
They think 'we do this every day, we know better than you'
I'm sure they do when it comes to everything else pregnancy related, but if she says she's pushing then she's pushing! Lol

 

[Kholl]

I really like this idea but in the moment my body absolutely takes over and not pushing isn't an option... I guess that's the "fetal ejection reflex" in full effect. And yeah, I had the most issues (with slight tearing and, ugh, hemorrhoids which are STILL an issue almost 2 years later) with my last baby when I panicked and pushed when I wasn't *quite* ready. I was almost there but I know I pushed too soon, I was just freaking out and was like GET THIS OVER WITH. She shot out pretty fast but it definitely left some lasting damage down there. Not major, but not fun either.

 

[MissKW]

Well I really wanted to try this and was practising when using the loo etc lol but when my son was born (5 months ago now already!! Time is passing so quick!) even though I had a nice straight forward natural delivery (no drugs other than a bit of gas just before pushing) I found myself holding him in and whenever he started to move down I blocked him and couldn't seem to help it, so in the end I had to keep pushing down to stop myself from blocking him... Not sure if anybody else had the same problem but I certainly wasn't expecting to be so counter productive XD he was still out within around 15mins though and no stitches needed but if I have another I will be trying again using hypno birthing to aid me instead of just trusting myself to know what to do lol, how naive was I XD

 

[Hayz]

I hypnobirthed and the focus was relaxing into it and visualising downward movements (rain, waterfalls etc). I think that might stop your body subconsciously blocking. I could have done with slowing mine down. Too fast and you don’t have tome to stretch. 3 mins stage 2 ad 21 stitches. Grade 2 tear.

 

[jasenhudson59]

Yes it can be; my last child was born without any push. But certain things can happen that make active pushing not the best option.

 

[Gravidgecko]

With my first, I felt like my body was pushing, like the muscles began to spasm, but I sort of remained as relaxed as I could around that. I think part of me was scared to 'go with it' as I knew that's the bit that would hurt. I remember feeling her come down and even turning. I then said to the midwife that I felt I wasn't pushing yet, more just letting my body do what it wanted. She said 'why don't you try one with the next contraction', so I did...
...
and her head was born! One 'active push' and she was out! It hurt A LOT, and I did tear. I certainly didn't pant through it or anything, just went for it and pushed past the pain to get it over with as quick as I could. The girls didn't even have their gloves on lol!
My contractions eased immediately and I pushed out her body next with minimal effort/ pain.

It is worth noting that she was born still in her bag of waters, so that could be why it was so quick, but I personally think it's because she was pretty much already 'there'.

I was on my hands and knees throughout labour, which may have helped in 'disconnecting' from the urge to push. It wasn't a choice I made (I didn't even know it was a thing!), I just didn't want it to hurt lol.

Hope that helps