premature pushing

[Mildez]

50mins of pushing for your first baby is very normal. In saying this as a midwife if the baby is not distressed I will not encourage a mother to push without the urge although this may be compromised if she has had an epidural and it may be necessary to start pushing before the feeling has returned. The urge will come when your ready. That could be 5mins or an hour. Whilst your getting through these contractions bub is getting closer to delivery and the pushing phase should be easier for you as you do not have as far to push (as bub has often descended a bit more before pushing starts) Its also much easier to push when the urge is so overwhelming you just cant stop. Pushing will be much more effective.

I was made to push with my 1st. I was 17. I pushed for almost 3hours without exaggeration although this was not always effective. I do not recall ever having that urge to push. As a result I had a massive PPH after birth from uterine exhaustion and ended up loosing 1.5L of blood and required surgery to control the bleeding. With my 2nd birth I was fully dilated 30mins before I started pushing. I had no urge when the VE confirmed I was fully dilated. At that stage I told them it felt like I had a shot put up my a#*e. When the urge came around 30mins later DD2 was out with 2 contractions which included a mild shoulder dystocia. With my 3rd birth the only one I had an epidural for I was loosing control even with the epidural which was not effective. I was climbing the walls and really distressed. The obstetrician pushed my cervix back when I was only 9cm dilated (but stretchy cervix) which helped me to push her out before I was ready. I consented to that and although it took another 30mins to birth her for me I felt that was the best. She was also a shoulder dystocia this time more serious then the 2nd baby. We were expecting it due to birth no2 and the fact no3 was 500grams bigger.

[Arcadia]

I definitely have a strong Fetal Ejection Reflex (the urge to push). It's like the urge to vomit for me - totally out of my control.

I pushed for 1 hour with my first, 40 mins with the second and 35 mins with the third. It sounds like your body knew what it was doing, but perhaps you couldn't really "feel" it at the time, even though your body was doing brilliantly. Perhaps some haziness from the gas?

Let go of those feelings hun. You did a brilliant job birthing your baby. Next time you might choose things differently. Next baby will be its own journey.

[Marley&Me]

Thank you ladies Gosh, people have said to me that 1 hour is ages! Some of you have had so much longer, i would have died!!

Mildez, how traumatic that must have been

Well, I feel much better about it all now. One thing i remember is them telling me to push like I'm doing a pooh. But it didn't feel right to me like that. It's almost like I can push from the front more effectively. I tried laying on my back, all fours, one leg on the bed standing up. In the end it was sitting on the toilet that did the trick!