How to Push Out a Baby

This Newsroom post is for all you pregnant and future pregnant women out there. I pushed for almost three hours when giving birth. It sucked. The doctors gave me oxygen because I was so exhausted by the process, and the physical repercussions weren’t pretty. I learned two things from this experience: the body has an amazing ability to heal, and I don’t want to test out those particular healing powers again. I can’t change the past, but maybe I can help other women change their futures.

I recently came across a post “When Push Comes to Shove” on the blog Katy Says. Since I took three months of Bradley classes, I thought I knew a lot about natural birth (even with not having one). But I didn’t.

This is what I learned from Katy’s post:

• Stop wearing high heels. Now. It totally screws up your alignment and bad alignment is bad for pushing.

• Stand more. Work at your computer at a standing work station (I literally just put my laptop on the dresser in the middle of that sentence. I’m so guilty of sitting too much.)

• Walk a few miles EVERY DAY.

• Don’t tuck and thrust your pelvis. I’m confused about how not to do that, but check out her blog to read a description of proper alignment.

• Release your gut.

Katy does a great job of explaining the bare mechanics of pushing out a baby. I had no idea that the myometrium-the uterine muscle-is actually the strongest muscle in the body. To be honest, I hadn’t even heard of the myometrium. I think it might be my new favorite word.

Although the myometrium is the strongest muscle in the body, it needs to be trained, and, no, not through those kegels. You need to stop carrying tension in your pelvic floor muscles. I’m starting to think I overdid the kegels and contributed to more tension rather than to toned muscles before giving birth. Katy explains that the uterus is strong, but can’t work harder than it is biologically programmed. I think that means you can’t do uterine exercises. She explains, “It can only generate the force it generates, which means the more relaxed and stretched your muscles are before you get to the maternity ward or your backyard birth tub, the more effective your natural process can be.”

Something I did know before reading this article, but I am happy she emphasizes, is the totally unnatural position of most hospital births. The force of the uterus works with the force of gravity (and with the force of your baby’s head on the uterine opening) to get that baby out. As soon as you position yourself horizontally, you are making life, and pushing out someone else’s life, more difficult than it needs to be. It’s probably like trying to drink water upside down.

Epidurals numb you and totally limit your ability to get vertical. I had an epidural and I don’t really buy the arguments about the epidural itself causing harm to your baby, but I do believe it can slow down labor and slow down pushing.

Do I regret getting the epidural? No! I admire women who can have inductions sans epidurals, but I’m aware I’m not made of that kind of stock. Still, I recognize that optimal pushing requires women having use of their legs. If I hadn’t had an epidural, my pushing phase would have been shorter, Amelia likely would not have gotten stuck, and my recovery would have been easier…I think. What if-ing the past is an imprecise sport. The moral of my confusing story? I don’t regret the epidural in my particular situation, but it sure made pushing out a giant baby more difficult than it needed to be.

The uterus is a crazy strong muscle and gravity is an incredibly effective pushing helper. If I had to break down Katy’s advice into two easy steps, they would be the following: a) Walk with proper alignment before giving birth and b) push with contractions while getting gravity to help you out (or, should I say help the baby out?). She provides a lot more detail about the “expulsion phase” and the pelvic floor, so if interested, check out her entire post. Happy pushing.