PattyMomVA wrote:


I've always wondered about something with regards to pushing. With both
babies, I felt the urge to push, as in I knew I was ready to, but I felt
like I preferred not to. At that point, the contractions became much less
painful. It felt like I wanted to just do nothing during a contraction and
feel a little relief from having to deal with them for hours. (BTW, I had
an epidural with DD and nothing with DS.) The nurse was telling me to push
when I felt a contraction. Instead, I felt a contraction and didn't push.
I just didn't want to. But, she figured this out by looking at the monitor,
knowing I was having a contraction, so told me to push. I still wonder to
this day if it might have been nicer to me and not unsafe for the baby to
rest through a few contractions at that point and then push when I wanted
to. Does this happen to other women?

Women left to their own devices often have a resting
phase after they get to full dilation. It is just fine, and
often a good idea, to allow her to wait until she wants to
push. Of course, I wouldn't know from experience since I
desperately wanted to push before I was fully dilated all
three times ;-)

Best wishes,
Ericka