but what if you don’t want to push your babee out

Let’s chat about practice pushing or purple laughing or coached pushing.

Practice pushing at the wrong time is my hospital ick! Next thing you know you’re pushing for hours. Hours. The quickest way to exhaustion when you’re almost there.

However with birth being a complex event and very nuanced there is a time and place for laughing when comes time birth the babee.

The old way of counting to ten while holding your breath during pushing has been proven to be outdated but still widely used by hospital staff.

You good? Babee good? Are you progressing, meaning is Babee moving down the birth canal?

If yes, then you have the option of laboring down, which is allowing your babee to move down the birth canal naturally and letting your body do what it physiologically does best, phenomenon of fetal ejection reflex which is pushing without pushing and allowing spontaneously birth to push your babee out.

Your body is easing you into transition.

Trust me you’ll know when babee is coming. You’ll get the overwhelming urge to push.

If your babee isn’t further down the canal as needed practice pushing can be laborious and can lead to pushing for hours when your babee simply isn’t stationed low enough to birth. In some labors babee may need a bit of a nudge and coached pushing can be beneficial or an option a mother may want to take to progress delivery.

The best position is whatever your body tells you to do. All fours? Side lying? Squatting? Lunge? Standing? Yes, even on your back if that’s what feels best for your body to birth your babee although keep in mind gravity works against you and delivery could be longer and more intense.

Remember U•F•O

Upright.

Forward leaning.

Open.

We encourage positions that encourage optimal fetal positioning. But continue to breathe.

When you breathe babee receives oxygen too.

So how should you be directed to push?

The Evidence-Backed Technique

Duration: Push for short, controlled bursts of 5 to 7 seconds per contraction rather than holding your breath for 10+ seconds.

Breathing: Push with an open glottis—meaning you allow yourself to grunt, groan, or exhale naturally. No yelling tense glottis is a tense cervix.

Frequency: Limit pushing efforts to 3 or 4 short bursts during a single contraction.

Positioning: Whenever possible, use upright, gravity-neutral, or side-lying positions. This limits pelvic floor damage and eases the descent.

“A better approach based on current evidence is to delay pushing until you feel the urge to push.”

Some honeys breathe through it.

Some honeys roar through it.

From an evidence based practice, practice pushing can lead to severe perineal tearing, urinary incontinence, and oxygen deprivation for the babee.

But what happens if you get an epidural and you need a little bit of coaching? Or if you just desire some direction? There is evidence behind how you should be coached during pushing. The evidence based technique described above works best in this birth scenario too. With epidural anesthesia, pushing can be delayed up to 2 hours for nulliparous women and up to 1 hour for multiparous women.

Muscles have memory and as a student of massage therapy I cannot express enough that you can begin training your muscle memory for birth—in pregnancy.

Breath work.

Nervous system regulation.

Movement.

Breath work and cough work are one of my favorites to practice breathing and how to push. Breath work helps to relax the mind, oxygenate tissue, and relax the pelvic floor muscles. When you cough you utilize the same muscles you’ll use to push.

Less pushing.

Better outcomes.

Better breastfeeding.

I began my complimentary Spring Into Summer Lamaze based Childbirth to Breastfeeding education series over two years ago and received great feedback. So I’m back again but this time with the hopes of continuing on to certification.

I teach in home Lamaze based hands-on 6hr childbirth to breastfeeding classes over two visits.

My next FREE 4 week series is coming in July. I will use those classes to work towards becoming a Certified Lamaze Childbirth Educator through a new teaching pathway implemented recently.

If you or someone you know is in their third trimester and in need of prenatal education—book me, honey!

💛🐝🍯

#babeeledbirth #babeeledbreastfeeding #thebearthandthebees #bookmehoney