I had a midwife a bit like her when I was in labour - she was all "I like to get my ladies to 7cm before going into hospital" and similar. (I was nowhere near 7cm but she was still lovely) She was great, actually. When I was still at home and not coping very well (I was like Sam from last week) she got me to relax by getting me to put my arms down by my sides, palms up. That was a lot more helpful than saying something like "Just relax" without telling you how to because you try to relax everything at once and it doesn't work. Focusing on my arms meant everything else relaxed too.
So when I was pushing my mum kept saying something like "Palms out, palms out" which would not have made any sense to anybody else but reminded me of what I had learnt to do.
Anyone else notice how the midwife kept going on about how important support was and then that awful husband... I wonder whether she knew the extent of what he was saying at the time - I bet she was shouting at the TV tonight if not!