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Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

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Original poster

pushing before cervix is fully dialated

27 replies

fultime · 18/09/2006 18:14

I pushed when my midwife told me I had 'hours to go' yet because I could not stand the pain any longer and my baby girl was born within minutes and almost shot off the end of the bed as they wasn't prepared and didn't realise I was pushing anyway. It didnt do me any harm or the baby thank god, but I do wonder if they sometimes stop you pushing when you should be how do they know that you mustn't push, why shouldn't we listen to what our bodies are telling us, and mine was saying push push. What damage can it do pushing before fully dialated does anyone know?

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marz · 18/09/2006 18:17

Well....as a laywoman...(oh ha ha ha, only l laugh at my own jokes!!!)I imagine that potentially you could end up with tears ...or damaged muscle tissue?
I am quite adamant that it was due to 2 good midiwves telling me when to stop pushing that made sure that I did nto tear at all....
but who knows, maybe left to my own devices, I might have been ok...
Glad you got to miss out on the hours of extra pain though!!

Donbean · 18/09/2006 18:19

Interesting question.
For me, i was pushing ds as it realy eased the pain, i dont think that i was fully dilated, he was breach and half way through my mad pushing they knocked me out and gave me a c.section...how rude!
Any way when he was hauled out, he had a most horrendouse black bruise right the way round his bottom, like he had been forced into a tea cup.
I think that this bruise would have been his head had he been the right way up. Who knows what damage it could have done...shudder.

alexsmum · 18/09/2006 18:36

if you push while there is still a lip of cervix, it can swell and make it difficult for the baby to come out anyway, and cause lots of problem.

nixnoo · 18/09/2006 19:14

my midwife told me I had a way to go, but I felt like speeding things along by pushing, which I did. My son was born in 14 mins, no tearing.....

Toady · 18/09/2006 20:17

Only had one experience of vaginal delivery because first two were sections.

DD2 however I was told to push because I had an epidural and it just did not seem right at all, anyway ended up with failed ventouse, forceps and had an emcs.

When I had DS3 I did not push, my body did and there was no way I could have stopped it. He shot out so fast, thank goodness the midwife was there to catch him.

ghosty · 18/09/2006 20:29

Haven't read the rest of the replies. I have no personal experience (had 2 c/s) but my mother nearly died from a haemmorrage (sp) after tearing her cervix when pushing before fully dilated when giving birth to my brother. She tore her cervical artery and lost litres of blood. She remembers the moment she passed out and thought to herself, 'this is it' . She is a midwife and this was her 3rd child (she went on to have me 19 months later) but it was touch and go at the time. She still talks about it 38 years later so it must have been pretty awful.

snugglebumnappies · 19/09/2006 09:19

As a midwife I would say there are no hard and fast rules, however if you are only 2cm dilated and start to push then there is next to n chance that you will speed things up! It really depends on how soft and "stretchy" your cervix is as well as how dilated it is, and also where your baby's hed/bottom is in relation to it, sometimes the head/bottom isn't pressing on the cervix at all. I have to say it's more common for second and subsequent babies to be pushed passed some cervix. If someone does start to have very early urges to push (I did from 4cm with my first) it may be due to baby being in a posterior position and often changing mum's position to kneeling can relieve that urge. It is thought (but not well researched) that pushing on an undilated cervix can cause it to swell and then not continue to dilate. I have to say I tend to leave women to go with their urges but if they seem to be pushing or a while and there is no sign of baby being born I will ask them if it's ok to do a VE to check if they are fully dilated and if they aren't then encourage them to try different stratergies to cope with that god damn awful urge to push!

redzuleika · 19/09/2006 09:25

I find it interesting that people are talking about the urge to push / being able to stop pushing. I could no more have stopped pushing than I could have stopped breathing: my uterus was doing it all on its own and I had absolutely no control over it. (Didn't work, btw, as she was a brow presentation - so emergency caesarean for me...)

CarolinaMoon · 19/09/2006 09:31

I started having urges to push at 6cm, which is obviously not a good idea.

It was pretty much impossible to stop pushing - in the end they gave me an epidural to stop it (they wouldn't let me get into a kneeling position because it would slow things down even more - I'd been stuck at 6cm for hours already).

Ds was stuck in my pelvis, so pushing would have just ground his poor little head against my pelvis.

Socci · 19/09/2006 09:45

Message withdrawn

Socci · 19/09/2006 09:46

Message withdrawn

rubles · 19/09/2006 10:16

I have often thought about this after my labour. I had thought that you went to 10cm in the first stage, then you had some unspecified length of time 'in transition' and then the urge to push would begin when you were in second stage.
However, when I started getting little urges to push at the peak of my contractions I was only 7cm dilated and I was surprised that the m/w said just to go with how I feel, I thought she would be worried about an anterior lip to my cervix. She wasn't and it was all fine. I too found that pushing took away the pain and felt more satisfying.

snugglebumnappies · 19/09/2006 12:07

Hi carolina, I don't think a kneeling position would slow things down at all, no idea why they might of said this to you, unless the ment a knee to chest postion, eg kneeling with your bum in the air and chest as flat on the floor as you can get, this may slow things down but I couldn't deffinatly asy it would as we are all different and loabour differently of course!

CarolinaMoon · 19/09/2006 13:46

sorry, I haven't made myself at all clear .

I did mean knee-chest (i.e. bum in the air) - so working against gravity and taking pressure off your cervix, in the hope of slowing things down.

sorrell · 19/09/2006 13:49

saw a study that showed things actually went better when women followed their instincts instead of being told when to push and when not to.

bubblepop · 19/09/2006 14:11

mm this thread is interesting! never got the urge to push one bit with my third child, only pushed when the mw told me to. i was 10cm on arrival at the hospital. when i did push her out it was the most horrendous birth experience of them all, does anyone know the answer to this one?

CarolinaMoon · 19/09/2006 14:16

sorrell, having an 'early' urge to push (i.e. not when 9.5cm or whatever) can be a sign that the baby is malpositioned, apparently, if it happens in a long labour where progress has stalled.

You could end up putting a lot of pressure on the baby's head for no benefit if the baby is stuck.

it is a whole different ball game if the baby is descending well.

Toady · 19/09/2006 14:41

that makes sense Carolinamoon

Socci · 19/09/2006 15:45

Message withdrawn

PinkTulips · 19/09/2006 15:50

i wa made to puch at 8cm as my dd had the cord around her shoulder and her heartbeat had almost stopped. it was imperative to get her out so my mw manually stretched my cervix and told me to push

with ds i had the urge to push a few mins after they told me i was only 5cm, i was told not to but i insisted and started pushing anyway, mw saw what i was doing, had me turn over to examine me again and his head was crowning!

Kidstrack · 19/09/2006 15:53

fultime i agree i felt in my first labour they stopped me pushing by giving an epidural and then topping it up to stop me feeling the pushing sensation as i was only 7 dilated(one doctor said i was 10)(ended up a c/s), but when in my second labour i was only 7 dialated i pushed and dd was born, i never had an epidural and couldn't stop myself pushing and dd ended up at the end of the bed, i however did have a bad tear and slight haematoma(sp) so i suppose thats why we shouldn't push before 10

PinkTulips · 19/09/2006 15:54

should add that i only needed 2 labial stitches with dd and none with ds even though both of them had their arms over their faces coming out... little monsters!

belgo · 19/09/2006 15:56

I was told to push at about 8 or 9 cm because the baby was in OP and the midwife had to turn, her head manually. It was extremely painful and physically the hardest thing I have ever done, far worse then the delivery of my first baby, which was also a drug free delivery.

PinkTulips · 19/09/2006 15:56

just read thorugh and i agree with whoever said there was no force on earth that could have stopped me pushing with ds.... my body was expelling him whether i liked it or not, was a trmendous relief to go with it rather than against it though

Kidstrack · 19/09/2006 15:57

carolinamoon thats what i think happened with ds he was back to back (midwifes never knew this until c/s) had he not been back to back i think he would have been born when i was 7cm

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