Just this week, an article published on the Pregnant and Postnatal Women’s Learning Center Online Portal discussed the topic of pushing during labor.
The learning center is an online resource with answers to questions that are important to pregnant and postnatal women.
The information on there is probably quite different than most other perinatal resources.
The Perinatal Learning Center is chiefly there for the women that Mountainside On-Site Massage Therapy works with, to answer commonly asked questions, as well as questions that the Perinatal LMTs thought should be asked, but most of the resource is not password-protected, so any person can learn quite a bit.
The topics range from Pregnancy-related to birthing-related to postnatal-related topics like breastfeeding and recovery.
In other words, there are actually a bunch of different views and ideas as to what pushing means.
And, yes; that even extends to doctors and midwives!
How could this be? Is this even for real?
Apparently so.
And, these aren’t ideas in a vacuum of, say, academia, ; these are what these medical professionals go on when delivering a baby.
Weird, huh?
I definitely think so!
The article explains, in detail, all of the conceivable possible interpretations of “push,” from the point of view of the possible movements of the pelvic floor and pelvic core.
I must admit, readers will come away after reading the piece with more questions that they had started with.
And, that’s probably a good development in their lives that will lead to being a more informed patient.
The idea for the article came about when the author wanted to know more about the relationship between a woman’s monthly cramps and the contractions during birthing.
Were they the same?
Experiencing pelvic cramps seemed to involve all the same structures, so the author wanted to learn what was actually the case.
And, which muscles, ligaments, and tendons were being tightened during labor during a “push”?
Was it these same structures a woman pushes with?
Apparently, some believe so.
But, it’s not nearly a consensus view, not by any means.
Different doctors and birthing professionals believe a push to be many different things.
It’s scary, almost.
Now, everyone can’t be right. It’s not possible.
The most popular view is that pushing during labor is the same as pushing out poop.
There’s also a popular view that pushing involves the abdomen and diaphragm, a sort of squeezing in but letting no breathe out.
There are other views, but I suggest reading the entire article to learn more.
Then, there are some birthing professionals who do not encourage voluntary pushing.
There is clearly no one way to push or consciously breathe, and refraining from either is also a possibility.
There is no “one way” that works, when it comes to pushing and breathing, the article made me realize.
It reminds me of how women can grow a baby in their womb or breastfeed an infant and always manage to fare well, on a variety of diets.
As long as the Mom is getting sufficient nutrition daily, it seems to be a non-issue.
Just like how daily fasting and keto aren’t going to work with pregnant women, neither will holding your breathe at birth.
Besides that, though, clearly a number of techniques and ideas work to get babies born.
There is an unprecedented guide at the end that provides details on how to perform the Monthly Menstrual Pelvic Core Awareness Exercise.
Every menstruating woman should be looking forward to the next bout with cramps; the guide will show you how to use the opportunity to gain strength in your pelvic core.
It’s easy and seems like it would be effective.
Overall, the article is a good read, especially if you’re a pregnant person or love someone who is, or you work with the perinatal population.
