urge to push?

i had an epidural for about 8-10 hours with first labour so i never felt the urge to push which i was disappointed about. with my second labour i had an epidural about 10-15mins before i was at the pushing stage (went faster than everyone expected). i think i felt the urge to push but i dont know whether it was wishful thinking or not really it becuase i only felt it the once. to me it felt like when your abdomen goes a bit rigid and tenses up and then involuntarily sorta spasms when you vomit except it was a downward feeling rather than an upward feeeling. do you think that is it? what did it feel like for you?>

i just remember that the urge was uncontrollable! my body just did what it needed to do, i cant remember anything about my abdomon been rigid, probably because i was too focused on further down :lol: but i guess your right, feels like when you tense up to use your bowel but much stronger

well excuse the way i explain it lol
it felt like the baby wanted to push out of my bum :redface: and i freaked out and tried to hold back lol after about 3 contrax i called the midwife and she said it was time to push basically a lot of pressure downwards

From what I can remember I was the same as AJP. As soon as I got the urge my body took over and I just went along for the ride. It was so surreal as I was laying on my left hand side and I would instinctively lift up my upper leg and just push. It was like I was on auto pilot and my body just did it all - so amazing.
Guess my memory will be alot fresher in the next few days (I'm 41 weeks pg) so I'll pop back on and let you know.

Yep thats how I would describe it also lol.

if i hadnt of had the epi would i have felt it over and over again with each contraction? its wierd cause i only felt that the one time.

i didnt have an urge with #1 - i was told when to push with the contractions (posterior contractions).

With #2 - homebirth - i felt the urge - like ii had to do a huge poo. :P

hmm, if everyone felt like pooing then i dont know what the heck it was that i felt then LOL!! :-)

For me, the tummy tensing etc happened when I tried to resist the urge to push.

I clearly remembered saying after my DD was born that I definitely studied the wrong things in my anatomy class. Everyone told me that babies came out the vagina but they lied - they come out your bum!!! My OB and midwife just laughed at me. Lucky I worked with them or they probably would have got a mouthful!!!

I remember the midwife asking why i didn't want to push, and me responding "because i'll poo!!! I DON"T WANT TO POO!!!" hahahaha

But you're right, once you start... its like autopilot, your body knows what its doing and just goes for it - crazy!

Nope i didnt feel anything in my bottom with any of my births. The pushing felt GREAT as that was when all the uncomfortable feeling left. It just felt like "bring it on". With my first i just started grunting and pushing.... I didnt even know i was until someone said to someone else "look shes pushing" :)

I think i get what you mean Hollo. it sounds pretty similar to the point where it goes from transition into pushing. i too had the most intense tightness across my belly (almost as if DD saw the tunnel and tried to claw back up LOL!). this was coupled with a shift in the way the contraction hurt...so it shifted from just being cervix pain to moving away and being more general around the whole pelvic region.

About 2 contractions on top of eachother of this the real full-blown 'oh dear, i think my bott bott is about to explode' urge came over me and the only relief i got from it was to bear down and start pushing.

Hollo, that is EXACTLY how I described the feeling to my hubby so yes I would say it's like the urge to vomit only about a million times more intense. It takes over your body so strongly that there isn't much you can do to stop it, although I had to try with my first labour (posterior!). The vomit analogy was the only way that I could think to describe the urge to push to someone who hasn't experienced it.

NikW YAY!!! i'm not a freak! :-) good to know i'm not the only one to feel it that way LOL!

Ohhhh I'm so jealous. I never had the urge to push. First time with DS I had an epi so couldn't feel anything and I was so intrigued the second time around about the urge to push...I started a thread on it.

I had a completely natural labour but the urge to push never came. The midwife told me I "sounded a bit pushy" and I told her I just felt constipated lol and she told me that was the baby coming and I said no I had ages yet. She wanted to know how I knew and I said I didn't feel like pushing at all.

But after a couple of minutes of this they made me get up on the bed and start pushing and it felt so unnatural. They kept saying to me "we know you don't believe us but your baby is coming" and sure enough she was in my arms less than 15 minutes later. I hated that part of the labour because I had been expecting that my body would know what to do and it didn't...it just felt wrong.

The ob said that his wife didn't have the urge to push either - they had 5 kids - so I was glad to know that I wasn't the only one.

Definitely felt the poo urge with the first. But yeah - its not something that is easy to control at all. I never want to hear "There is still a lip, try to not push" ever again.

YOU TRY NOT PUSHING!

Poo urge here too. I could have sworn the baby was coming out of my butt. The pushing stage was SUCH a relief tho. It felt so good to push. Much better than 1st stage of labour!

Funny thing tho... with DD when I said I feel like I'm pooing... the OB said "yes, well, there's a bit of that too" PMSL. Poor guy.. think I wee'd & poo'd during that labour! LOL sorry... probably TMI. Delightful process this whole birthing thing is! hahaha.