You might wonder when and how to push during labor. Don’t worry, everything you need to know and prepare yourself for labor is right here!🧐
Delayed pushing
🤰Delayed pushing
Delayed pushing is the one-hour interval at the beginning of the second stage of labor, after you’re fully dilated to 10cm but before you feel compelled to push.😃 Because you may not immediately feel the urge to push after you’re dilated, resting gives you time to allow sensation to build up and creep in, especially if you have an epidural.💉
🤰Disadvantage of delayed pushing
If you delay pushing for longer than one hour, you’re prone to intrauterine infections or postpartum bleeding.🩸 Your baby doesn’t receive enough oxygen due to the accumulation of lactic acid in your blood. A life threatening condition called sepsis which is the suppression of the baby’s immune system can also arise.⚠️
The longer you delay pushing, the longer the labor process is. Consequently, your delivery needs to be interfered with cesarean delivery and vacuum-assisted delivery to protect both you and your baby.👩⚕️
Coached pushing
🤰How coached pushing is done
As soon as you’re fully dilated, you will be given a signal to push, indicating you’re in the beginning of the second stage of labor. A labor and delivery nurse is usually your coach.👩⚕️
You’re told to take a deep breath👃 at the beginning of every contraction, then hold your breath and tighten your abdominal muscles, and push down as hard as possible while the nurse counts to 10. You take a quick breath and start pushing again for another 10 seconds.
The pushing process just keeps repeating like that until the nurse sees your baby’s head.👶 To avoid perineal tearing, the nurse will tell you to stop pushing when your baby’s head, which is the biggest part of the body, passes through the vagina.😃
🤰Disadvantage of coached pushing
Coached pushing is often associated with higher risk of moderate to severe perineal pushing. It may also lead to risks of episiotomy in which the doctor uses a forcep to cut through your vaginal opening and the anus.👩⚕️
When you hold your breath for too long during pushing, lactic acid is built up in the blood🩸 due to decreased oxygen flow to the placenta. Your baby is stressed, resulting in higher risk of neonatal resuscitation and intensive care nursery after the baby is born.👶
Spontaneous pushing
🤰How spontaneous pushing is done
You are the coach! No one has to tell you to do it.😃 When you feel the urge to push, just push as hard as you can. The baby’s head is pressing on the nerves that cause you to have bowel movements, so you will easily feel sensation when it’s time.🤗 You may do it for five to six seconds at a time, five to six times per contraction.
🤰Disadvantages of spontaneous pushing
Spontaneous pushing takes longer than coached pushing.⏲️ In addition, you tend not to take a deep breath before pushing but actually exhale instead of holding your breath during spontaneous pushing.
You may not feel the urge and bear down as soon as you’re fully dilated due to an epidural. You let a contraction build before bearing down instead, leading to more frequent bursts during contractions despite the short span of spontaneous pushes.🧐