Emma Willis Delivering Babies question

[yomommasmomma]

I am sure I am slow off the mark here but I am finally watching this series and I am enjoying it but I have a couple of questions that I wondered if anyone else has a view on.

Why does it seem that all the mums give birth lying on their backs in bed, attached to lots of monitors and don't move around?

Have the majority of them had epidurals?

I am so surprised that so many women are having this same experience. I really thought childbirth had moved on from this. Lying on their backs is how my grandmothers were made to give birth 60 years ago.

I'm just watching the new 24 hour baby hospital on more 4 and a woman wanted to move off her back and midwifes and own mother forced her to stay 🤦🏼‍♀️

I was encouraged to try and get gravity to help by standing up, knelling while resting on the back of the bed etc but all I wanted to do was lie down and curl up from the pain. It didn't work so well the first time where I pushed for just over two hours but luckily the second time it only took about 10 minutes!

*kneeling!

I'm convinced that being forced to lie on my back resulted in my emergency section 2 years ago. Never again

I had to lie down with both of mine because my legs felt too weak to hold me in any other position. All strength in my legs totally left me.

So it seems like it does work for some, just not all are being given the option of other positions.

I wasn’t allowed to move cause I was being monitored. I was offered a bath though

I was manhandled on to my back for DC1, despite my protests. After a catalogue of shitty “care”, had DC2 at home. Kneeling on the floor.

I had all 3 lying on my back out of choice. I felt like my body wouldn’t have let me go anywhere, I felt too heavy, always a bit to hear about women kneeling up giving birth because my body was far more comfortable lying flat (it’s still comfortable lying flat at every available opportunity ). And I was so tired between contractions all I wanted to do with sleep. I didn’t have epidurals with any of them, just gas and air. Actually pethidine with the second.
All low risk pregnancies and no problems with the deliveries other than dd1 who was rather poorly at birth but fine within a few hours.

My first I was upright kind of handing over the back of the bed (until I needed forceps) second I was laying on my back/side as that's where I wanted to be.

In the birth unit I went to there were no beds. They had beds in the delivery suite downstairs for complicated labours but not on the birth unit. There was a pool, sofa (which was big enough to lie on), a chair and a bouncy ball with some nice mood lighting and music. My midwife really encouraged movement and even made me stand to let gravity help at one point.

But the baby didn't want to come so I ended up on a drip in the delivery suite giving birth on my back

One birth in the pool (lovely) and the other flat in my back with instruments. The staff tried their hardest to get me active- I had a mobile epidural and mobile monitoring with the syntocin drip but they couldn’t get a good enough trace at some points unless I was still and on my back. I didn’t want the head electrode. In my case, I genuinely believe they tried everything they could to try for an active birth. Even with all the lines, I remember being upright leaning against the headboard for pushing. It just wasn’t to be unfortunately as baby was distressed, I wasn’t pushing well and they just needed to pull her out.

Probably because that’s how most women end up by choice, despite it being against our primal instinct. Custom and practice, and media, have a lot to answer for. We see women on the tv and in movies on their backs giving birth, and that’s what ends up in people’s heads.

I’m a student midwife, nearly finished my training, and the majority of the women I’ve had the privilege to care for gravitate toward this position regardless of the pain relief they have on board (or not!), and are extremely resistant to suggestions of position change in order to harness gravity.

So, whilst I’m sure that there are midwives out there who get women on their backs to push because it helps them, this is certainly not my experience - it has honestly been mother led. Another reason we should make the bed less of a focal point in a hospital birthing room!

I had to lie on my back because I was induced and baby was being monitored, I kept asking if I could sit up and move around and was told no they wouldn’t be able to check the baby properly it was a rubbish position to be in tbh, such an in natural position to give birth in.

@BuntyCollocks that’s my experience too.
Most women also tend to gravitate towards the bed when they start pushing even if they’ve been mobilising.

To the comments about being told not to move position due to monitoring and drips ect, unless you’ve had an epidural and physically can’t move or have had pethidine ect there’s no reason why you can’t get up or move position. You may however be restricted to how far you can move away from the bed if for example you have a CTG that isn’t a mobile one, but there’s no reason why you can’t do a position change and go onto all fours or onto your side.

Re the comment about lithotomy position yes it’s an easier position for midwives, but we’re not trained to just support women in that position. Lithotomy position is used if the woman has been pushing a while and the baby’s head isn’t advancing as it helps open the pelvis, and sometimes it’s encouraged if the woman is on the bed and the baby is suspected to be large, it’s also used if an episiotomy is required or if an instrumental delivery is needed.

Also some women may be encouraged to labour on the bed if they are high risk such as the woman with lupus in this weeks episode. She was at risk of bleeding both during and after labour. Did you see the amount of blood that she lost? Also this week the woman who was on the ball and had the tenns machine whilst on the birth centre ended up on the labour ward due to meconuim stained liquor (the baby had 💩 inside) so she was transferred for monitoring, she also had a long labour so was tired, and probably had some kind of pain relief but I don’t think it showed what pain relief she had.

But back to the original question why are most women on their backs? it’s often preference due to being in pain and being tired, and probably due to that’s what most women see as being normal (they see it on tv/in films). Also if the woman is high risk she’ll be encouraged to labour on bed (but can change positions) the woman may have had pethidine/epidural or is knackered after a long labour.

I gave birth on my back both times, actually out of choice. I didn’t want to move, horses for courses in the end.

I gave birth on my knees both times, leaning over the back of the upright bit of the bed.
I didn't give the midwives the chance to tell me what to do and if they had I don't think I'd have heard them tbh. My body went into some kind of auto birth mode. It did what it needed to do while I zoned out until the baby arrived!

I only felt comfortable on my back towards the end of my labour. Before that I moved around a bit and was on all fours but eventually the only place I was comfortable was on my back.

But I had spd and other issues with movement towards the end of my pregnancy so that might have had an impact.

I had an epidural and an active labour both times. First time gave birth on my back as I needed forceps. 2nd baby I was squatting on the bed holding on to the headboard. 2nd labour was so much easier and I was able to stay upright even after the epidural.

I had an induction with monitoring but had mobile monitoring and was upright throughout and gave birth standing up. I lay down once to be examined because I was ready to push and midwives didn't believe me (I'd only been in labour 90 minutes). It was agonising and I couldn't get up again quick enough.
My other labours were at home, upright or kneeing up. Can't think of anything worse than lying down. This is one reason I didn't like watching OBEM, the majority of women on there are lying flat too.

I too delivered kneeling up the back of the bed but in my instance, I was encouraged by the midwives to do so.

Also same as MrTumblesSpottyHag, I went into auto mode and definitely wouldn't have heard then telling me to do otherwise, nor would I have been capable. Even now I couldn't tell you one of the midwife's names!

It is so interesting to hear people saying that they felt they were on auto pilot whilst giving birth. This is exactly how I felt with both my labours, my body did it and I don't think I purposefully did anything apart from trying to breath deeply and keep calm!
I felt like I needed to push but even then it just sort of happened and I feel like my body did it not me. Is it a mysterious thing!

Yes yomommasmomma exactly this!

I know this sounds crazy [and FWIW I was high as a kite on gas and air] but I really had a moment when my body said to my mind "I don't need you. You go and do something else, because I've got this. I know what I have to do". So my mind pissed off and it was like a video game was playing in my head during the last stages!

Some of these testimonies are upsetting I didn't think women were made to lie down these days! My first birth was lying down as I had an epidural and was being monitored. Second and third babies I couldn't have laid down if I tried (actually I did try to lie down during labour with my second and it was so much more painful I got up again!). I had a particularly fabulous midwife the second time who kept a low profile other than to raise the bed so I could lean on it and deliver standing up. It felt very instinctive.