Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Mar
4
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Thoughtful Thursday! “Do What Your Body Wants To Do; Don’t Do Anything That Hurts.”
“Do what your body wants to do; don’t do anything that hurts.” – homebirth midwife to mother starting to feel pushy. The mother was concerned that she might not be fully dilated.
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When I had my dd (in an hour from the first contraction to holding her), I told my midwife, I need to push and she said “So push!”. Even though it was my second labor, I was still expecting my midwife to tell me what to do at each step. (Breath, push, breath, push). I was very surprised she said “push”.
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My midwife never even checked how dilated I was. She asked if I wanted to push, I didn’t know and she suggested that I try pushing and see if it felt better to push than not. It felt good so I pushed and the rest is history.
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Mary Reply:
March 5th, 2010 at 10:26 am (Quote)
My midwife never checked me either. I had a contraction and I started pushing, there was no stopping it. I couldn’t have resisted bearing down even if I wanted to at that point.
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Laura Reply:
March 5th, 2010 at 1:01 pm (Quote)
My s-i-l’s midwife did exactly the same. I think she did one internal exam in fairly early labor and the rest she just did by looking at my s-i-l’s face and body. S-i-l said she was feeling pushy, and midwife said, “Honey, you just do whatever your body is telling you to do.”
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This is my story. 
She was (is) an awesome midwife. My first birth (unmedicated/hospital) I had started feeling pushy and they all said oh you have to wait, we have to check and make sure you’re complete, and I’d had a bit of a cervical lip…so this time I was nervous about pushing without an official okay to do so. Her ‘okay’ was not the one I had expected, but it was exactly what I needed.
Here is the birth story, by the way, if anybody wants to read the whole thing http://brightonwoman.blogspot.com/2009/11/eagles-birth-story.html
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With my most recent birth (third baby, second VBAC, first unmedicated) I had been “stuck” at 8-9 for what felt like forever (maybe 40 or so minutes) so I allowed AROM. Almost immediately I felt like pushing. My OB-who was still sitting on the bed-didn’t say one word about me being “complete” or not and I pushed a few times before she suggested a position change to hands and knees and I pushed out my daughter just a few minutes after that.
Even if they would have told me not to push, I couldn’t (and wouldn’t) have stopped…
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This is almost the same thing that my MW said! She checked me at 7cm, and minutes later I started feeling the urge to push. Baby was born about 15 minutes later. Gotta love a midwife who trusts the mom and encourages listening to her own body!
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This is not my submission, but my midwife’s apprentice said something similar to me. My hubby was trying to get me to relax through the contractions, not realizing yet that I was pushing. The apprentice told me to listen to my body. She’ll make a great midwife!
Great the the OP’s midwife said this. I’d love to hear a hospital based midwife say something like this too.
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Amatullah Reply:
March 5th, 2010 at 6:22 am Amatullah(Quote)
My hospital based CNM said this. I was pushing (couldn’t really control it anyhow) but I was concerned that, since she said I was only 9.5cm, I might cause swelling if I pushed. I doubt I spoke up about my fears, but she must have sensed it or something, because she told me(paraphrased) to just do whatever I needed to do.
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