To push or not to push… that is the question
Lately I have been asked a lot about pushing. Hypnobirthing advocates birth breathing and letting the uterus do the work of bringing the baby into the world. This one aspect of the program seems to cause much confusion and debate. Many doctors simply don’t believe that a baby can be born without active pushing. To which I respond, that just because you haven’t seen something, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Yes many women push their babies out. Yet other babies seem to float out into the world, while their mothers breathe down and let the surges of their uterus move the baby into the world. To me this seems the ideal way to allow a baby to be born. It conserves Mom’s energy. It allows both mom and baby to have a good consistent source of oxygen. It prevents pressure from building up in mom’s eyes or face, so no broken blood vessels. It allows mom’s body to do what it is designed to do. It allows the tissues of the perineum to stretch gently wide open and allows mom to give birth with the tissue of her tissue intact. It allows baby the gentlest entry into the world. Sounds good to me.
I will agree that there are special circumstances, like baby’s position, which may necessitate more active pushing. However I would hope that the gentler approach be used first and that any active pushing be done with an exhalation, as opposed to holding the breath, which is detrimental to both mom and baby. I believe it’s very important for mom to follow her own birthing instincts and to bear down when she feels the urge rather than pushing because someone else in the room is telling her too.
Today I came across this wonderful video on youtube of a hypnobirthing mom giving birth. The best part is the you can clearly see that she is allowing her surges to bring her baby into the world. What is ever better is the wonderful support that she gets from her midwife to encourage her to use her surges and to ease the baby out slowly and softly.
I hope that you enjoy this video as much as I did, and that it inspires you to breath your next baby into the world with ease and grace.
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=qriqhDFo088
Marie
The whole principle of hypnobirthing is that you go with your body. The breathing and visualisation that you learn in class is a very effective way of birthing your baby which, as you say, can confuse midwives because it appears as if the mother is doing nothing. However, if you fell the urge to bear down, you go with it. It would plainly be creating tension in the body to go against it, and that’s the last thing you want to do.
Katharine Graves
Katharine Graves is a hypnobirthing teacher in London