Dilation- why 10cms?

[Heaven]

I just had a thought when reading another thread. How come they say you have to be 10cms dilated before pushing? Where'd they come up with the 10cms? Why is it the same for everyone. Do some ppl dilate more or less? Seems like with everything in labour and birth everyone is different but everyone is the same for this.
Just curious, anyone know the answer?

[Sammiejane]

Hummm good question.
Maybe something to do with the fact that you cant sqeeze a head through 5cm
Not that i got the oppertunity as i ended in a c/s but from the sounds of it getting a head through 10cm is hard enough.

I seem to remember something about that the part of the head that comes through first gets squished to about that diametre.
I will be interested in others answers thou - Alan???

[Heaven]

lol, yeah, getting through 5cms might be a bit rough. But I wonder if some ppl just never *quite* get to 10 cms and some ppl are bigger? Hmm...
And how do all baby's heads fit through the same space when they're all different sizes.

[~clover~]

I was actually told to start pushing at 7cm with DD1. It was a long labour & if I didn't have her soon they were going to send me for a ceaser. My MIL wouldn't let them, so they agreed I'd start pushing & about an hour & a half later she was born. I never got to the 10cm with her.

With DD2 I was told to start pushing, but then an internal decided I was only 9cm, so I had to stop pushing for a bit. At 10 cm I think it was only about half an hour of pushing.

With DS I had the urge to push at 7cm & begged them to let me. They decided I could coz I told them I wouldn't put any effort in, just push a bit to relieve the pain. Anyway, after about 10 minutes they told me to put some grunt into it. I think it only took about 20 - 30 minutes.

I've always wanted to know too. Wondering if it could've done damage to my cervix or something.

[The[cookie]Doctor]

I can't remember the calculation (except that it involves Pi) but with babies heads being different sizes a 10cm dilation works out to be roughly the same as head circumference, I think. DF and I worked this out the night Alex was born and I was too high to sleep . Interesting question.

I think I dilated the last two centimetres very quickly.

[Alan]

Hi Girls
What a good question. A full explanation would be very long so I will try to be basic.
First let me say that 10cm is not always 10cm it is an estimated measurement. It would be great to be able to get in there with a tape measure and get an accurate reading but I?m sure that you girls would not like that too much. So Midwives measure your dilation by touching one side of your cervix with one finger and the other side of your cervix with the other finger we then estimate the distance that the fingers are spread apart. As you can see this is quite inaccurate, what I would consider to be 6cm another midwife may consider it to be 5cm and yet another 7cm. Now as pregnancy and childbirth is treated more like an illness than a natural part of like the powers that be require numbers, times and percentages. 10cm is a nice round number and it is also the approximate distance from one side of the vagina to the other. Problems arise when you push too early. If your cervix is not dilated enough then it can become trapped between the baby?s head and your pubic bone. Should this happen your cervix can become swollen and bruised causing what is known as a lip. This effectively causes less room for your baby to pass through. This cervical lip often happens when the midwife or OB uses coached pushing. (this is where they tell you when to push). A better option is to let your body tell you when it is time to push. In most cases the urge to push will only happen when your cervix is dilated enough to let the baby pass.

[~clover~]

I'm glad that didn't happen to me. Its scary now that I think about it.
Can pushing too early cause any permanent damage?
My next labour was about 12 hours longer & I did wonder if it was coz of that, or just painful pre-labour.

[Alan]

Pushing too early will not cause any permanent damage. And if you stop pushing then the cervical swelling will go down resonably quickly

[~clover~]

Ok. Thanks Alan. I must've got lucky.
Although I'm pretty sure that last internal was before I was pushing, so they wouldn't have had any idea if it happened or not.
It did take a while, but she got out. It can't have been to bad.

[Heaven]

Thanks Alan!! That answers my pondering. I was wondering why people have to wait until the 10cms to push and thought that wouldn't they just know themselves when they have to push coz they can feel it and it might be earlier for some ppl. Your explanation makes perfect sense.

[~clover~]

Thanks Alan!! That answers my pondering. I was wondering why people have to wait until the 10cms to push and thought that wouldn't they just know themselves when they have to push coz they can feel it and it might be earlier for some ppl. Your explanation makes perfect sense.

Just so you know, I never really had the urge to push. I think I did with DS, but I dunno if that was it, or if I more wanted to push to take my mind off the pain. Some people don't get it, but I've heard of plenty of women giving birth without pushing too.

[Trillian]

The urge to push comes once the baby's head has passed down onto the mucular floor of the vagina, triggering a reflex reaction (this reflex does have a name but I can't remember it) which tells your body to start pushing, so some of you may get the insane urge to push and you can't stop it, some of you may not get it if you are being told to push before your baby is at that point in the vagina. Some women will dilate past 10cm if that is what is needed to get baby out. Also that's why some babies will have a lot of moulding to the shape of their head - some will come out perfectly normal looking and others will have quite a cone shape (My first had a terrific cone head as soon as he came out and I was devastated and asked if it would stay like that LMAO) - and that is so baby can pass through the vagina. Also if a baby is in a brow or face presentation (where they have their head tilted back as opposed to tucked into the chest) a woman will need to dilate a lot more than 10cm because it makes the circumference of the head bigger - most times women with a brow/face presentation are whisked off for a c/s, but women with a reasonably small baby and a large pelvis should in theory have no trouble birthing a baby this way.

[~clover~]

A friend of mine had her DD face first. Poor little thing came out with swelling & bruises all over her face.