Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Childbirth

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

Flip

1 2

Original poster

Uncontrollable pushing?

43 replies

isitbedtimex · 12/04/2022 21:41

Gave birth to my son 5 months ago, im a first time mum. It's all very much a blur now but I remember having the urge to push, but when they checked me I was only 2cm dilated. But I had absolutely no control over my body and the pushing, it was horrendous. I ended up asking for an epidural in the hope it would stop but the epidural failed anyway. I'm just curious if this has happened to anyone else?

OP posts:

Asthenia · 13/04/2022 19:10

I had this! It was absolutely uncontrollable and the midwives were panicking me saying I wasn’t dilated enough and I shouldn’t be pushing. When they finally checked I was 9cm and luckily they were able to manually move my cervix the last cm, it felt soooo good to finally push!

SecondhandTable · 13/04/2022 19:23

Yes, I had this with both my children.

With DC1 it wasn't until I was fully dilated so the 'right' time to push anyway. I think the midwife said I wasn't fully effaced so to try and delay pushing a little more, but I explained it was involuntary and I couldn't and she said that was fine and listen to my body. Ended up in an instrumental after 2hrs of pushing.

DC2 I had the involuntary pushing feeling so early that I was convinced it couldn't be that and must be something to do with my bowels?! I went in to hospital and they told me I was only 3cm by the student midwife, and sent me home and said it must be to do with my bowels which is obviously common during labour. I was home for about 40 minutes before DH took me straight back again, only to be told I was now 9.5cm! So I'm not convinced that the student was correct at all, which would explain why I felt I needed to push if I was well on my way to transition. Unfortunately after 2hrs of more purposeful pushing once I was told it was the right time, I had yet another instrumental.

Whiskeypowers · 13/04/2022 19:30

I was told with my third baby at 3am “you’re not ready to push “ I had come down to labour unit five minutes earlier at 3 cms so not even established labour
It turned out at 3.05 am at that point I was in fact 10 cms and he was there in my arms at 3.10am

So yes

WonderingWanda · 13/04/2022 19:39

@Ringmaster27

Your body has a thing called “foetal ejection reflex”. All the labour hormones combined with the surprisingly impressive strength of the uterine muscles will expel a baby eventually without you doing anything - that’s how women in comas have given birth etc, but you feel the uncontrollable urge to push in order to help the foetal ejection reflex along. With DC1 (hospital birth) I told the midwife around 2hrs 20mins into labour that I needed to push. She was very flippant, saying “no you don’t, not yet!”….I listened to my body. I couldn’t ignore the urge to push. My baby was born 40 mins later. DC2 and 3 were both home births. I refused all examinations so have no idea how dilated I was at any point during my labours. I felt that urge to push and that was that - baby was here in minutes few

That's really is interesting with my second I wasnt pushing and as my uterus contracted I could feel the baby being pushed down the birth canal. The midwife kept saying I was doing well but I really wasn't doing it, was like my body was pn auto pilot. The only I time I pushed was when I was crowning and I was being told not to...oops!

ShowOfHands · 13/04/2022 19:48

I was fully dilated for 6hrs and didn't have a single urge to push. And DD didn't move down even a mm in that time. I also had 2 minute long contractions with around a 20 second break between them. This went on for 30hrs.

I'm not convinced my body has any of the right reflexes or the ability to deliver a baby.

Organictangerine · 13/04/2022 19:50

I had the opposite - zero urge to push. I had the crushing pains from the contractions but that was it. I had a couple of hours of fruitless coached pushing before the forceps were whipped out.

FTEngineerM · 13/04/2022 19:50

Yeah at 8cm and the absolute bitch midwife kept saying stop pushing hun you’re gonna tear hun stop it hun you’re not ready hun..

Organictangerine · 13/04/2022 19:52

@ShowOfHands I had similar, were you induced as well? I was on the drip and I likened it to being caught in a riptide - barely coming up for air before another contraction smashed into me. If that makes sense.

Aichek · 13/04/2022 19:53

I had this and they swore I was only 4cm but then checked again and had dilated 6cm in 35 minutes. Are they sure you didn't dilate very fast? I was in agony and that was why.

My second labour was also quite fast but much more measured- big difference. It was a water birth and I think that helped regulate everything.

You could ask for a debrief with a senior midwife?

seaduck · 13/04/2022 19:54

Yes three babies and three times I've been told I'm not dilated enough to push and to try not to. Hey presto, 3 babies born minutes after being told that. Once my body starts pushing, there is no way I've been able to feel like I'd be able to stop, it's actually a bit terrifying in the moment. And I'm so glad I've been in the hospitals when it started!

Chocolatejus · 13/04/2022 20:04

I remember the strong urge to push and was pushing for an hour and nothing was happening (was fully dilated). I remember the midwife telling me to do purple pushing (worse advice ever) because apparently I wasn’t pushing hard enough. As there was no progress I ended up with forceps but I remember everyone suddenly screaming at me to stop pushing even though the urge was so strong. Turns out my baby was completely tangled in her umbilical cord and it was tightening around her neck and leg with every contraction. I was lucky she was born alive but she did have a swollen head and I have ended up with a prolapse.

2reefsin30knots · 13/04/2022 20:06

I had this. I was induced and DS was back to back.

My question; if this is so common (suggested by this thread) why do midwives seem so surprised by it?

BeckyWithTheGoodHair010101 · 13/04/2022 20:10

I had this with my second (first was an induction due to PROM and ended in a c section)
I couldn't control the pushing, my body just did it. Even on the theatre table prepping for a spinal (instrumental delivery) my body was pushing and I was trying unsuccessfully to get it to stop. Was a relief having that massive needle in my back as that's the moment it stopped!

BeckyWithTheGoodHair010101 · 13/04/2022 20:11

Interestingly - baby was back to back. I knew this as the first was too, and I kept telling them but everyone told me I was wrong. Until they scanned and went "oh, baby is back to back".
Fucking told you so. I was so cross!

ShowOfHands · 13/04/2022 21:35

I wasn't induced @Organictangerine just rubbish apparently.

Organictangerine · 13/04/2022 21:42

@ShowOfHands

I wasn't induced *@Organictangerine* just rubbish apparently.

Well if you’re rubbish, then I am too! 🗑

Ihatewinding · 13/04/2022 22:18

Like PPs, had this and baby was back to back. Had lots of early involuntary urges to push then lost the ability to feel contractions properly once I was fully dilated When back to back I think the pressure of the head on the cervix isn't the same as when in the normal position so don't get the right signals.

Do you know if your baby was back to back? I read about back to back labours being associated with early involuntary urges to push after my daughter turned one and asked my partner what way she came out and he replied face up so confirmed it. Though baby could be back to back during labour and turn so come out the right way anyway.

I reckon my PND started off from that sense of failure of not knowing if could trust my body to labour "properly" (got told to fight the urges as cervix was getting swollen), then it was just made worse when felt couldn't read my baby's cues. It was like I couldn't trust myself to be a good mum as couldn't labour properly, didn't have proper maternal instincts, etc. But got help and in a much better place now.

Ginandvomits · 14/04/2022 09:37

I felt this for my second, it was like my body was expelling the baby all on its own. It was frightening because DD was an undiagnosed breech and they rushed me to theatre for an emergency c-section. Needless to say born before they could perform it and thankfully we were both well in the end.

I did wonder if it (pushing not breech) had anything to do with the raspberry leaf tea I had been drinking to help the delivery. I may have had quite a lot

Flip

1 2

Swipe left for the next trending thread