What was the midwife doing?

I have been wondering for a while now so I thought I would ask.

When DD was born it was a lovely water birth, contractions no worse than period pain and the birth itself was painless (incredible pressure, but no pain).

I got out of the bath because DD was getting cold and about 20 minutes later the placenta came out with a tiny push.

Then the midwife pushed on my tummy really hard. I wasn't expecting it and it was so painful that I yelled out (after a silent birth!) and couldn't help trying to pry her hands off me. Does anyone know what she was doing and why?

Not 100% sure but my ob did the same thing (though he didn't push down hard, just massaged my tummy!) - and from what i could gather it was to ensure that the placenta had been fully expelled, along with any blood clots.....at least thats what the mw told me when i asked her what he was doing :)

All the placenta and membranes already out?

She could have been checking where your uterus was, how far it had gone down or checking for blood loss. Those things shouldn't of hurt they way you describe though. Perhaps she did it way too hard?

Its called 'rubbing up the fundus' ( top of uterus), it should be well contracted down, ie hard and below the belly button. If you were bleeding too much the midwife would do that first before giving drugs etc, to prevent a haemorrhage. Sometimes if the bladder is full or theres some placenta/membranes not come out it would cause the uterus to not be contracted well and that can cause bleeding. Yes, it hurts unfortunately. Maybe she thought you were having a trickle of blood? Its not usually neccessary if the blood loss is ok, but some people might do it as a 'prevention' i suppose. Sorry to hear it was so painful, I've had to do it many times on women when I know its painful, but it really is better than having a large bleed. Hope this helps, sounds like you had a beautiful birth aside from that xx

I have had the Midwife of this to help the placenta out. I have also found it painful. I will be telling them not to touch me this time.

Thanks for that. The midwife has been a home birth midwife for 20+ years so I guess prevention of a bleed would be her aim.

Pulpatating (sp) the uterus to help it contract back to its normal size. Thats what came to my mind straight away. they did this to me when I had my last 2 c/s. I wouldn't have thought it necessary in a natural delivery though

I think most do it just to hurry things up so they can get on with cleaning up etc.

ive had them do this with every one of my births, they say it is to check for clots, after dd2, the midwife dont this a few times, while i was going to the loo i had a large clot, and she explained that was why she pressed so hard, (she did appologise, but owch!) as she could feel it, applying pressure sometimes helps them out.

Clots might explain it too - they didn't do it when DS was born and I had some massive clots, tmi but there were 5-6 tennis ball sized ones I could feel coming out. If I wasn't careful when I went to the bathroom they would roll off the pad and onto the floor lol

After DD I didn't have any.

I've had to have it done after each birth (all in completely different hospitals), but they have always explained what they are doing as they are doing it. It is to slow down the bleeding and stimulate the uterus to contact. Sometimes it hurts more then others, but they really do need to use a fair bit of pressure. I have been warned by my midwife this time (again a different hospital) that they will likely need to do it after I have bub, particularly as it is my fourth baby and I have quite fast labours.