Electronic monitoring involves strapping 2 pads to your bump. One pad is used to monitor your contractions and the other is used to monitor your baby's heartbeat. These pads are attached to a monitor that shows your baby's heartbeat and your contractions.
Sometimes a clip called a foetal heart monitor can be attached to the baby's head instead. This can give a more accurate measurement of your baby's heartbeat. You can ask to be monitored electronically even if there are no concerns. Having electronic monitoring can sometimes restrict how much you can move around. If you have electronic monitoring with pads on your bump because there are concerns about your baby's heartbeat, you can take the monitor off if your baby's heartbeat is shown to be normal.
Labour can sometimes be slower than expected. This can happen if your contractions are not coming often enough, are not strong enough, or if your baby is in an awkward position. If this is the case, your doctor or midwife may talk to you about 2 ways to speed up your labour: breaking your waters or an oxytocin drip.
Breaking the membrane that contains the fluid around your baby your waters is often enough to make contractions stronger and more regular. This is also known as artificial rupture of the membranes ARM. Your midwife or doctor can do this by making a small break in the membrane during a vaginal examination.
This may make your contractions feel stronger and more painful, so your midwife will talk to you about pain relief. If breaking your waters does not work, your doctor or midwife may suggest using a drug called oxytocin also known as syntocinon to make your contractions stronger. This is given through a drip that goes into a vein, usually in your wrist or arm. Oxytocin can make your contractions stronger and more regular and can start to work quite quickly, so your midwife will talk to you about your options for pain relief.
You will also need electronic monitoring to check your baby is coping with the contractions, as well as regular vaginal examinations to check the drip is working. The 2nd stage of labour lasts from when your cervix is fully dilated until the birth of your baby.
Your midwife will help you find a comfortable position to give birth in. You may want to sit, lie on your side, stand, kneel, or squat, although squatting may be difficult if you're not used to it. If you've had lots of backache while in labour, kneeling on all fours may help.
It's a good idea to try some of these positions before you go into labour. Talk to your birth partner so they know how they can help you. Find out what your birth partner can do. When your cervix is fully dilated, your baby will move further down the birth canal towards the entrance to your vagina. You may get an urge to push that feels a bit like you need to poo.
You can push during contractions whenever you feel the urge. You may not feel the urge to push immediately. If you have had an epidural, you may not feel an urge to push at all. If you're having your 1st baby, this pushing stage should last no longer than 3 hours. If you've had a baby before, it should take no more than 2 hours. This stage of labour is hard work, but your midwife will help and encourage you.
Your birth partner can also support you. When your baby's head is almost ready to come out, your midwife will ask you to stop pushing and take some short breaths, blowing them out through your mouth. This is so your baby's head can be born slowly and gently, giving the skin and muscles in the area between your vagina and anus the perineum time to stretch. Sometimes your midwife or doctor will suggest an episiotomy to avoid a tear or to speed up delivery.
For first-time mothers the average length of pushing is one-to-two hours. In some instances, pushing can last longer than two hours if mother and baby are tolerating it. Normally, the baby is born with his face looking toward mother's back referred to as an anterior position. However, some babies are facing the mother's abdomen referred to as a posterior position.
Posterior babies may have a more difficult time passing through the pelvis, which may cause pushing to be more difficult or require more than two hours of pushing. During the second stage of labor, the uterus continues to contract about every five minutes and each contraction lasts to seconds. The contractions are usually strong and forceful and may or may not be accompanied by an urge to push.
This can make this phase somewhat more enjoyable since you are now working with each contraction. A renewed sense of energy may occur as you feel the closeness of your baby's birth! However, sometimes after a long or difficult labor, the pushing stage can be exhausting and uncomfortable. Most women will feel increased pressure in their perineum, rectum, and low back at this stage.
For many women, the rectal pressure feels the same as having a bowel movement. As the baby's head begins to appear, you may feel a stretching or burning sensation. You may want a mirror positioned so that you can see your progress. Pushing is most effective when the mother feels the urge to push. Women who receive epidural anesthesia may have the sensation to bear down numbed by the anesthetic. The practice of "delayed pushing" waiting for the baby to passively come through the birth canal has been studied as an alternative to start pushing at 10 centimeters.
If you and your baby are doing well, a one-to-two hour period of "passive descent" is safe and may make your pushing more effective. There are many different positions that may be used for pushing. In all positions, keep your chin down and use a rounded back to help your abdominal muscles assist your uterus in pushing your baby. The following suggestions of various positions for pushing and advantages of each one. You may be able to speed the progress of the labor if you try positions where gravity assists you i.
However, if the baby is delivering quickly, you may be able to slow the stretching of the perineum by trying positions where gravity is neutral i. It is important for your comfort to experiment with pushing in different positions.
Many women find pulling a towel or sheet held by a partner or tied on the squat bar to be very effective during a pushing contraction. There may come a time when you may be asked not to push with a contraction. Royal College of Midwives, Evidence-based guidelines for midwifery-led care in labour.
Available from: www. Cooke A. British Journal of Midwifery 18 2 Oxford University Press, Oxford. Simkin P, Ancheta R. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell. When it comes to content, our aim is simple: every parent should have access to information they can trust.
All of our articles have been thoroughly researched and are based on the latest evidence from reputable and robust sources. We create our articles with NCT antenatal teachers, postnatal leaders and breastfeeding counsellors, as well as academics and representatives from relevant organisations and charities. Read more about our editorial review process. Second stage of labour: how and when to push.
Read time 5 minutes. Email Post Tweet Post. Second stage of labour: what is it? Best birth positions Positions can make a crucial difference in labour. Examples of upright positions include: kneeling squatting either independently or using a hammock, rope or bar to dangle from standing using a birthing stool leaning over a birthing ball.
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