What position did you birth in?

[Fleur]

DD1 - I was on all fours, very comfy, and was made to lie on my back to slow her down a bit, they needed to cut the cord before she was born. I grazed.

DS1 - on all fours leaning into a beanbag again, very comfortable, no tears

DD2 - on my back Midwife wanted me reclined because she was worried about cord prolapse. In hindsight I could have moved after my waters broke & she descended, but it happened fairly quickly & I wasn't really thinking clearly
It all happened in the space of about 5 minutes and when it did she could have let me move onto all fours or something, instead she lay the bed flat & made me push like that. It's my one regret, that I wasn't more in a state of mind to say 'hey - no' to her
I had a second degree tear.

MamSpice, re the monitoring - you should still have a fair few positions you can try, I had monitoring with 3 of my 4 labours & moved around quite a bit (except for the last).
With DD1 I had monitoring due to epidural & I was on all fours, probably would have stayed like that if they didn't have to slow her a bit.