Sasha - I don't know why anyone would say that everybody does a certain thing in labour as everyones labour is so different. I felt very nausous during trasition, not like all the time but just waves but never actually threw up ( which was amazing as I still had ms at the time so it wouldn't have taken much to make me vomit) As for tearing there are loads of women on here that have given birth without tearing and you're right the midwives should be working with you to help the peri stretch as you birth your baby. Have you read active birth they have heaps of suggestions to help with slowing down the birth to allow the peri to stretch. Hope you get a more pos response from your next class