Help - pushing from shoulders down instead?

[pigletmaker]

Someone on here mentioned pushing from the top of your abdomen / shoulders instead of from your bottom during childbirth -

Does anyone know about this, tried it and has advice on technique?

I'd like to avoid pushing my entire bottom inside out this time round, if at all possible!

There's got to be at least ONE mnetter expert on pushing? No?

An amazing doula i know called MARSLADY reminded me to breathe my baby out and I'd say that that beats actively thinking about pushing.

So pretend to be in pain, then push all the breath in your body out slowly and forcefully out of your mouth, and at the same time think of expelling a child from your nether regions.

Am I making sense to anyone but me?

You are sort of making sense but the breathing bit sounds back to front - as last time I was told to take a big breath and hold it, and push - very busta bloodvessel

This breathing OUT is the opposite...

But I don't think I'm going to need to pretend on the pain front. Very real very very real!

That doesn't sound healthy! No I pushed accidently almost whilst breathing out through mouth very forcibly.

the sort of pushing you describe, purple pushing or valsalva pushing is really not that necessary..

if you are pushing yourself, you do need to push down into your bottom... not sure how you could push from your shoulders

you cannot practice pushing in advance, but you can practice breathing tecnhniques or hypnobirthing..

the uterus can expel the baby without any maternal effort if you are very lucky !

Wow I've never heard of pushing from the shoulders! I found the whole pushing part really hard with DC1. I wished afterwards that there HAD been some way of practising it. I found the breathing techniques for first stage incredibly helpful, but had no idea what to do for second stage and ended up with 3 hours of awful pain and not very effective pushing. But when at last I did push effectively, it was definitely into my bum. Shitting a melon is definitely the best description - it felt like using all my force to push some huge lump out of me. The idea of breathing a baby out sounds wonderful though!