This doesn’t even make sense. I wanted to move around in labor and the point of labor was to get the baby out. Why does one wanting the baby out have to do with not moving around.

Does he really think the baby’ll move out faster if she sits there hooked to the monitors? Well, maybe it will if he cuts the baby out.

Movement is often the KEY to a successful and easier delivery! I just don’t get how docs that see L&D everyday can be so ignorant…

I wish I could have moved. I was MISERABLE during my labor with my daughter. Oh, to go back and do it over again…

I have had 6 labours and the last one that I did not lay or sit down till pushing was not only my shortest (all the others got longer instead of the other way around) but the one with least amount of intensity, I coulndt have asked for a better birth plus I was only in the hospital about 1 hour before he was born

Moving is essetntial to getting the baby into the optimal position for birthing, its the reason so many mothers have “failure to progress” its because they are not able to help their babies with gravity by being flat on their backs and not moving!!…

As a doula, I’ve seen a lot of births. Most moms wanted to move. My favorite was the birth at which the doctor tells the nurse “she won’t want to be out of bed once labor gets going” and mom was 7 cm. when he checked her. She stayed out of bed until the very end, when (as usual) they made her return to the bed to push the baby out. If we could just let moms listen to their bodies, life would be so much saner.

Funny, last time when baby was OP and nurse kept me in bed the OB actually ordered that I move to turn the baby. Huh.

haha! While I think that the OB really could have shown a bit more tact, he/she is also right. I didn’t care WHAT position I was in during labor. I just OH MY GOD WANTED THAT BABY OUT OF ME NOW.

It’s a bummer that more OB’s aren’t sensitive to their client’s wishes when it comes to birth plans. I’m not saying to stick to them in an iron clad fashion- but it is MY body and MY birth experience and with how much it costs to have a baby at a hospital, shouldn’t they be a lot more considerate?

translate: you are not going to be able to move around once everyone bullies you into an epidural cause we can’t deal with women who do what they want.

It’s not an “either/or” situation, doc, it’s “both/and.” I wanted to move around AND I wanted the baby out (and got to do both, thankfully).

Yet another voice added to those who say
“I wanted to move around in order to get the baby out!”

Seriously, it’s not that hard of a concept. Walking helps labor move along. Being upright is more comfortable for most women.

Also, for me rocking and swaying the hips during transition helps get the baby into a good position for birth while reducing discomfort.

Yeah, I wanted the baby OUT, but I did not want anything to do with that bed until after she was out. After, i was happy to lie down with my new baby and just snuggle her adorable sweetness!

I had to move. The thought of sitting or laying in bed was enough to drive me mad, which drove me to an epidural with my first…and a homebirth with my second. I walked non-stop at home, and folded laundry in between contractions. I also gave birth in just under 3 hours and delivered standing up. Go figure.

Actually, she’ll probably want both, and thankfully the two work together!

Once I was in active labor, I did want to stay in one place, but that one place was never lying down. It was, “I want to stay right here rocking on my knees with my head on the birth ball” or whatever, but not very mobile.

Just me and my little mental nest and my little emotional space and my body working very very hard.

How about, instead of TELLING this momma what she is GOING to want, just tell her that she can do whatever feels right when the time comes. Come on, doc, if you’re so certain that moms don’t WANT to move in labor, what’s the harm in telling her she can?

I wanted to move and then rest, then move again! Why is it that hard for an OB to understand that movement helps babies move down and progress, and that every woman feels differently in labor???

With both of my births, if I was having a contraction, I was moving in one way or another, be it dancing on my toes around my kitchen, leaning over a birth ball and gently rocking, or leaning over the side of the tub while in the water and rocking my pelvis back and forth (notice none of these come anywhere near to lying down on my back). If someone had told me to lie down and push out the baby, I’d have bit their heads off – good thing I had both my babies at home with midwives that didn’t interfere!