To push or not to push, that is the question.

[PrettyCandles]

Is it really possible to 'breathe' the baby out without doing any active pushing?

no

with dd i had to push early anyway as she was in trouble and the midwife was willing to rip me to shreds to get her out

with ds they examined me as i had started to feel pressure and i was 5cm.... 2 contractions later i HAD to push..... mw told me not to as thought i wasn't dilated enough but i simply could not stop it.... my whole body was bearing down and i had no control over it whatsover.... she realised a minute later i was pushing anyway so turned me over to examine me... and saw his head crowning!

mommy knows best

no

with dd i had to push early anyway as she was in trouble and the midwife was willing to rip me to shreds to get her out

with ds they examined me as i had started to feel pressure and i was 5cm.... 2 contractions later i HAD to push..... mw told me not to as thought i wasn't dilated enough but i simply could not stop it.... my whole body was bearing down and i had no control over it whatsover.... she realised a minute later i was pushing anyway so turned me over to examine me... and saw his head crowning!

mommy knows best

With DD1 I had started to push without even realising it, I had gone from 1cm to 10cm in about an hour and the MWs told me to stop pushing as I wasn't ready until they had a look and realised I was. I would say my body and the baby did everything and I was a bystander. Very weird when that urge comes to push nothing in the world can stop it. I actually like the pushing stage as it means you can actually do something and you know with each push the baby comes closer (and more importantly at that time the pain will go).

With DD2 it was all so quick I remember having a few pushes then being told to stop and wait as my scar from DD1 was beginning to go.

The feeling of when the baby comes out and that pain goes in second to none.

BTW...it's complete rubbish that they have to give you an internal to see if you are fully dilated, apparently a good m/w should be able to tell by the perinium...a line or no line, or wotever...am not a m/w and can't quite remember what they looked out for, but they do not need to give you an Internal to know anyway!

Pinktulips, I had a similar experience with my last birth; I was examined beacuse I asked ( I was curious) only to be told I was only 2-3 cm. I felt SO discouraged as the contractions were very long, strong and frequent and I thought that if that were the case then I would last the course ( I was at home btw).
Anyway less than half an hour later dd3 was born . I didn't have another internal and when I started mooing like a cow I think it was obvious what was happening

3andnomore - can i just add - i completely agree with you about good m/w's being able to tell if you're fully dilated but with ds1 i wasn't examined, had slight urge to push so pushed after midwife said 'go ahead'....soon discovered i'd been pushing on a cervical lip...(i was hoping for homebirth BTW). Transfer to hospital, epidural and ventouse later ds was born. It was awful TBH and so in my birth plan for dd i asked to be examined before pushing.

Has successful homebirth with dd - hurray! - was examined when urge to push was overwhelming and i was virtually crowning!!

Think it depends on midwife, but i would always suggest being examined before pushing if it's your 1st...just wouldn't want a repeat of what i went through if it can be avoided.

I started mooing like a cow with my 2nd too, kittytsgoblin!

I did hynobirthing - no classes, just used the book and CD. The birth lasted 2.5 hours - I won't say it wasn't sore, but I felt entirely in control and I didn't have to push the baby out. he just sort of slid out. I was upright the whole way as well though, so that helped.

I used to practise my breathing technique when I did a poo - sorry if TMI. But usually when you poo you hold your breath and push. If you do 'birth breathing' (or at least how I understood birth breathing) instead of holding your breath, you breathe out and down, almost imagining the breath coming out of your bum. I practiced that each time I had to poop and so when the birth came, I just did the same thing and it worked.

I second JoshandJamie. I follow some hypnobirthing CD and had a water birth. Hypnobirthing didn't take the pain away but I was SO relaxed compare to the first time around. I didn't do any breathing just let my boddy do waht it needed to do. No pushing involved. Labour was alsp very quick : less than 3 hours between the first contraction and the birth.
TBH, felt really great!

I didn't actively push out either of my 2 babies. When transition happened I just relaxed as much as possible "down there" (while biting hard on the gas and air mouthpiece)

I fell asleep and was apparently snoring for a while during the pusing bit. It was a first for the midwife, who was gobsmacked. I had been in labour for 2 days though and just a bit tired. Having wanted a natural birth I remember thinking after 3 hours of pushing that maybe a c-section might not have been a bad idea!

first time I had to push hard but next two labours I breathed my way through it all and my body pushed. Babies were both born in their sacs really fast.
I went from hardly dilated to giving birth really fast so midwives were panicking. (second time still had my trousers on!) though the early stages had gone on for a long time.

Have to do it again in March so heres hoping for an easy one!
I don't moo I bellow!

this is a very interesting thread! all news to me- I pushed for two hours to get DS1 out and nearly gave up from exhaustion. Can anyone tell me the name of the hypnobirthing CD/info so I can get one before DS2 is born? Is it available online? I'd really like to do it- managed w/o drugs etc on first birth but nearly gave up with the pain so anything that makes it go quicker/easier must be worth while.

I had a massive urge to push with both children and didn't feel it was something I could stop. Is it possible to stop this urge then as my yougest came out with such force she was swollen, blue and had bloodshot eyes!

depends whether you are meaning when you are told to push or the body doing it for you. DS1 i was made to push but with DS2 has no option though the midwivves were saying just breathe, maybe they has watched the CD ds2 was born in 4 hours compared to 32 for ds1

I didn't need to be told to push, my body decided it was time and I went along with the flow. My second took only four pushes and the first was to break my waters.

Judemum - go here:

www.amazon.co.uk/Hypnobirthing-Natural-Approach-Comfortable-Birthing/dp/0757302661/sr=8-1/qid=1160680035/ref=pd_bbs_1/202-3765304-8949440?ie=UTF8

Sorry - don't have time to make it into a hyperlink. But hope you find it

My firend gave birth without pushing after a traumatic few days of labour she opted for an epidural and obviously could not feel a thing, during labour the midwife lost the babies heart rate and pulled back the sheet covering her legs to get a probe on babies head and the head was out and as everyone looked on stunned the next contraction pushed the baby out.

When I had DS I was aware of my body feeling as if it was pushing the baby out with me not doing anything and when I did push 3 pushes and he was out.

Despite everyone saying that you will automatically know when to push and you won't be able to stop yourself, I had absolutely no urge to push. As it turned out the babies head was visible before the midwife even suggested that I start pushing and I was guided by her for my pushing. Apparently my pushing was ineffective but the baby was still moving down as I could feel more and more of it's head and my dh was telling me it was moving down. I ended up 'pushing' for 3 hours+ but I think the baby would have come out anyway so this breathing the baby out may be true but may have taken me days

I reckon that not only is it diff for diff women, it is also different from one baby to the next. I had no urge at all with DD1 - ok was drugged up to the eye balls with pethidene.. - but with DD2 there was no way on this earth that you could have stopped me pushing and pushing, even when she was firmly stuck it was impossible for me to stop the pushing! THe top half of my body was panting like mad trying to stop the pushing and the bottom half of me was in total "baby removal mode" and carried on pushing regardless. Very strange feeling when your body takes over like that

I also had no urge to push at all the first time round. Dd had a massive head and I had to be guided totally by the midwives who told me when to push (otherwise, I never would have done!).

Ds was a different matter and just came out with one of my contractions. His labour was super quick though and the midwife wasn't even in the room when he arrived as no-one realised I was at the point where he might be delivered! So, he wasn't actively pushed out I suppose.

I should say that I did have an urge to push the second time round, just didn't realise I was so near to delivery.

I hypobirthed in water and had no rips is this true of others? Baby was 7.5 lb. I really reccommed hypnobirthing I didn't have any pain relief at all and it was a really surreal experience. I had intended to listen to my hypno tape during labour but arrived at hospital 9cm dilated, and amazingly just simply hypnotised myself! I just went into my own world, a bit trippy really, but obviously not coz I didn't have any drugs at all.

lasvegas- is it possible to learn hypnobirthing with CDs and books or do you think you need to do a course? Have just looked at the courses and it costs £200 which seems very steep. Would be interested in other peoples views on this. I am pretty interested in it for this next baby but can't imagine how it can possibly override all the pain....

I had a similar experience as foxinsocks, i could feel ds head coming down and going back up (i was on my knees btw) and then it crowned without the midwife being there (she had just popped to the loo 20 mins before!) she was telling me to gently push his head out, but i couldn't feel the contractions anymore and think he just came out with the contraction, iyswim Think i just ignored the urges to push and my body took over, had just gas and air and didn't tear.

With ds I didn't push at all, he came out in two contractions. I'd been fearing the 'ring of fire' but I can honestly say that bit didn't really hurt. I thought dd would be even easier, so it was a bit of shock when I had to do some active pushing to get her out!