- Mother Directed Pushing - Dreamstime
In the United States, labor and birth is generally a managed event. Women usually give birth in a lithotomy or McRoberts position with a nurse directing the pushing phase. Directed pushing consists of the mother holding her breath for a count of 10 while she pushes as hard and as long as she can before taking another breath.
When a mother listens to her body and follows her body's natural cues to push, this is called mother directed pushing, or spontaneous pushing. This type of pushing is more gentle, less controlled and offers six substantial benefits to both mom and baby.
Less Chance of Perineum Damage
When you naturally push with your body, you are less likely to experience perineum or peri-urethral damage such as bruising and tearing. Gentle pushing with your body's urges encourages a slower descent of the fetal head, which allows your vaginal tissues to stretch slower and easier.
Shorter Pushing Stage
With directed pushing, you are generally coached to begin pushing when you are fully dilated with no regard to how high the baby is in the pelvic cavity. In mother directed pushing, you wait until you feel the urge to push. Most times, the baby is much lower in the pelvic cavity when you begin to feel this urge to push. The lower the baby is, the less time and effort it generally takes before delivery.
Variety of Positions
Mother directed pushing is very position friendly. You can walk, squat, lean, be on all fours, or even in the birth tub while pushing.
Birth is Less Managed
When you listen to your body during the pushing phase, a team of professionals are not managing you. You are relying on your own intuition and natural urges to birth your baby. This generally makes you feel less watched and more in control of the experience which is usually most effective.
Baby Receives More Oxygen
When you listen to your body and push when you feel the pressure, the oxygen level stays higher which means that more oxygen is delivered to your baby via the placenta. This can alleviate or lessen the chances of supplemental oxygen use.
Mom Has More Energy
Pushing as directed takes a lot of energy from both you and baby. Constantly holding your breath and exerting so much energy in a short amount of time can leave you breathless, drained, and with a higher chance of an assisted birth using forceps or a vacuum extractor. Mother directed pushing allows you to breathe while pushing or hold your breath only when you feel like it is needed. This conserves on energy.
Mother directed pushing encourages mothers to trust their bodies and babies to know when it is the right time to be born.
Heidi Gonzales - Heidi Gonzales is a senior apprentice midwife, childbirth educator, AHA CPR instructor and monitrice living in Ponchatoula, LA. She has ...
