2025 Childbirth Tips for Pushing in Birth
AI was asked: What birth skills should a woman have?
When it came to pushing, AI’s response was: pushing skills to aid delivery
What skills are important for pushing? So glad you asked!
Pushing
For a long time in modern hospital births, during labor women were confined to their bed. Then during pushing, women were taken into ‘theatre’ and lay on their backs with feet in stirrups and pushed. This is called The Lithotomy Position … boy is it hard to find photos online to show you!
Don’t skip over the above. In fact, so you fully understand all of the below, lie down on your back, lift your legs, bend your knees and mentally put them into ‘stirrups’. Now you know that your body is not upright. Read on.
The Natural Birth Movement rightly said: ‘That’s not a gravity position”. That’s right.
BIG HOWEVER, as you are lying on your back, with feet up, knees bent … in the Lithotomy position … notice how open your pelvis feels. Keep these two things in mind:
- You’re lying on your back
- You are aware of how open your pelvis is
The Natural Birth Movement advocated that women get into a more ‘gravity plus’ position and that preferred position is called The Semi-Recubant Position .. sitting up on the bed, back of bed moved up to support your back then bend your knees with feet on the bed.
Please do get into this position now. What do you notice?
- Your upper body is upright … so you are in a ‘gravity plus’ position.
- How open does your pelvis feel now? (If you’re not certain, go back to the Lithotomy and back to Semi-recumbant and notice the change in the opening of your pelvis)
Here is the Reality and the Confusion.
NOTICE, NOTICE, NOTICE, NOTICE:
To come out of your body … Your baby has to push your sacrum backward then ‘round the corner’ to move under your public bone in order to point toward yuour vaginal opening. (PHOTO)
The Lithotomy Position … your pelvis is ‘open’ … your baby can do this, however, can be hampered because the rest of your body is not upright.
The Semi-Recumbant position blocks your sacrum and you end up pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing until the veins in your eyes are popping. Or, you try to lift your butt up or try to rotate to one side.
What is the best position for pushing or 2nd stage?
Any position that keeps your sacrum free and mobile! This does lead to body positioning
You have to go through all positions that your body gets into such as walking, hands/knees, squatting, side-lying to find out which keeps your pelvis open.
In reality, if your baby (a big object) can easily move through your body (a container) then it doesn’t matter what position you are in but when it matters, it matters heap!
BOTTOM LINE:
During your pushing, if your baby doesn’t feel he/she is moving down, through, and out then modify your upper or lower body, or legs so that you give your baby more ‘space’.