"Pushing" muscles

I went to see a specialist physio a few months back about ways to prepare my body for birth, seeing as I have a couple of physical complications this time that were caused by the last labour. One of the strategies she recommended to reduce pressure on the back during labour is when it is time to push, don't use your stomach muscles, relax your stomach and use the lateral muscles down both your sides.

Now this is my third pregnancy, and it's the first time I have heard this mentioned. To me it makes a LOT of sense, seeing as it reduces the stressload on the pelvic muscles, which work quite hard enough during labour.
She told me the best way to practice is when you are on the loo having a poo, relax your stomach and put your hands on the sides of your waist, practice until you can feel the muscles expand and use them to push out from the top rather than trying to push the poo/baby out from the bottom of the muscle groups!

I went to prenatal classes et al and had never heard this discussed, has anyone else? I'm wondering if perhaps I had known about this pushing technique previous to my last pregnancy if I might not have suffered the damage I did during labour. I recommend practicing, anyway, this makes so much sense to me that I'm sure it will make that last stage of labour easier.

Kerrie

I haven't Kerrie. I'll ask my physio about it at my naxt pilates class :D

I asked my physio about it and she said that you can strengthen the lat muscles to help with giving birth in this way. But you shouldn't forget to keep excercising your pelvic floor at the same time.
Good luck I hope it helps.

Thanks, Sammi, it's good to hear a confirmation from another source. No worries about neglecting the pelvic muscles - my pilates instructor is militant about correct pelvic tilts!

Kerrie

I love Pilates. It was a bit weird to start with but now I'm really glad about the strength I've got :D