Push As You Poop During Labor
Hello brainchild! I returned from maternity leave. Our second child was born, a boy named Max. It was the best! This was the worst! My brain is constantly hesitating between thoughts: “How could I even live in a world without this child?” and ” Who thought this would be a good idea again ?!” (Basically this is the first one. I’m in love with a child.)
I have a lot to share from the trenches of a newborn country, but for now, I’ll start from where it all began – a hospital bed with spotlights shining on my vagina. For all women who are about to give birth, I am here to reaffirm the effectiveness of the classic tip: press like you are picking up a huge, flaming poop.
When I was pregnant with my first child, like all frightened mothers-to-be, I was determined to do my best to ensure that the birth was the best possible . So I hired a biological doula, listened to hypno-born mp3s every night (“you open up like a flower,” the woman chanted) and practiced breathing in my worries. During labor, I tried about 17 different birthing positions – squatting, getting on all fours, pulling on the sheet, twisted into a rope, and standing in the shower and whimpering. It took five hours to push the baby out. By 4.5 o’clock, I asked for any possible tool that could help remove the newborn from my body (vacuum? Machete?).
This time, when a friend reminded me of the advice “imagine how you poop”, I thought about this and only about that. I pretended to be pooping. The baby popped out in less than 10 minutes.
Of course, this is just my personal story – all bodies are different and there are many factors that affect how babies are ultimately born. Any way you can safely give birth is a very good way. It is also worth noting that new mothers usually have a longer labor from start to finish – the first stage of labor usually lasts 12 to 13 hours for the first child compared to 7-8 hours for the second .
However, this is a good shot to start vaginal labor, thanks to the natural physiology of labor. Here is avideo of the baby’s head dropping and pressing against the rectum. “When you push the poop out, you’re using the same muscles that you push the baby with,” says Marianne Ryan, a NYC-based physical therapist and board-certified clinical orthopedic specialist. “It’s basically the same mechanism.” She says imaging can be especially helpful if you have an epidural, because you can’t feel your muscles.
As for the general fear of pooping with real feces, this is something you must literally overcome. It could very well happen. (When I asked my husband if this happened to me, he answered “definitely!” Which I will translate as “probably not.”) Many birthing experts say they are happy when they see poop because it means that the woman is pushing correctly. …
That’s all. Forget opening like a flower and pushing as if you poop. It works. Pass it on.