Annette continues to ask questions:
‘I’m still trying to figure out why the 2nd stage was so intensely painful for me… I guess it’s my unique body, what I keep wondering, what could I do next time? Most women I have seen labour found 1st stage challenging but generally did so well with the pushing. And even if they didn’t always manage to push the baby out themselves, at least they didn’t appear to have the intense pain or could “push through it.”
That still confuses me. Plus he was quite tiny at 6 lbs 2 oz’.
Wintergreen continues:
‘Curious that you believe women do better in 2nd stage. If that were true why are there so many ventouse, forceps, and episiotomies? In fact, the only difference between the 1st and 2nd stage is that women feel more pain in the 1st stage and behave tense in reaction to pain. In the 2nd stage, there is less pain but a huge amount of failure to progress due to soft tissue tension.
There are several things that cause intense pain in the 2nd stage:
- Intense internal tension that is stretching
- The baby is pressing on some part of the pelvis
The position you are in matters as well. If you don’t know if your pelvis is ‘open, mobile and soft’ then you don’t know whether the position you are in hinders or helps your baby come down, through and out.
Doing the Internal Work for 8 weeks totally changes the 2nd stage. By working all the internal soft tissue and knowing the shape of your pelvic outlet makes you much more conscious of how to control that part of your body’
Birthing Better online birthing classes are housed in Common Knowledge Trust