Okay. Let's talk about pushing.

the teaching topic I'm going to be talking about is pushing like a pro and pushing that makes sense. And some of this is like a no brainer, but unfortunately our society does not, show us that it's a no brainer, right?

You're going to be a freaking pro at pushing. And that's kind of what we're going to talk about. So one of my most favorite quotes by Ina May Gaskin, if you don't know who Ina May Gaskin is, she is the mother of all midwifery. And this is her quote. Let your monkey do it. And I love it so much because what she's saying is like, we oftentimes, when it comes to birth and pushing in particular, we get in the way of our natural instincts. Hence why I am so against lithotomy. Lithotomy pushing is so stupid, unless there's a real emergent reason, it should not be done.

And we're going to talk about trusting your gut. And this is just a mini section of my push like a pro class that I do. So education, why education when it comes to your birth in general is because you have to understand the stages of labor, because the movements that you do pre labor During early labor, during, active labor, during transition, and during pushing are so different in some ways.

And it all really, depends on the passenger, the baby. So, you have to be educated, you have to take an evidence based birth class so that you can recognize what stage of labor you're in. And you have to take a class that teaches you how to move your body. And that allows you to move more effectively,

Again, education, but we can also move our body in a way that's not really helping where our passenger is located in the pelvis. Being educated allows you to silence the fear and the negativity. We are all carrying around limiting beliefs around different things, whether it's believing that every woman in your family has a c section, so I'm going to have a c section, or my mom had a hard time pushing, so I'm going to have a hard time pushing.

If you are educated, you're able to pull the right skill and tool out of your tool bag when you need it. That's huge. The other thing that education gives you is the confidence to speak up. Because let's just face it, it's difficult in general to speak up. to, for most of us, it's difficult to speak up to the expert, right?

And to say what we want when it's contradictory to what they are saying. But when you're educated, you're able to speak up for the birth and the pushing experience that you desire. Ultimately, that's the most important because this is your birth. For me, it's my job. For your doctor, it's their job.

They're not going to walk away feeling feelings about your birth for the rest of their life, but you will. So being educated gives you the courage and the confidence and the boldness to speak up and speak out against what you may not want. or what you do want and it allows you to pick the person pushing experience that you desire to have and be an educated studies and stats and, you know, they show that the more educated you are for birth.

Women who have taken a full birth class, the studies show that they have lower incidence of unnecessary interventions, a higher chance for a vaginal delivery, and they leave their birth feeling more satisfied. So now let's talk about your education.

combined with your instinct. If you're not educated, you're going to have a hard time listening to your instincts because the instinct that's going to speak the loudest is going to be your fear and your flight or fight syndrome. Because when you're not educated, you're going to be so anxious about all the unknowns because there's a lot of twists and turns in birth.

And honestly, one of the most powerful tools you have is your instinct, but we drowned it out with all the confusion and all the doubt and the negativity. And, you know, a lot of times as women, we doubt and we suppress our natural instincts when it comes to birth and think the doctors and nurses know more than me, but that's really not true.

And again, both education and instinct allows you to tune out negativity and to trust your poop skills. Cause you're pooping out a baby basically, not technically, but sort of cause you're really using those same muscles and same skills. You've been doing it your whole life, girl. You can do it now. I promise.

And we teach those in the courses and show you the power of practicing them. So they're second nature to you. Now. I always say do what comes naturally to you, so I always want to tell you guys, like, don't push on your back unless you want to. I was on Medicaid with all six of my babies, and all six of them, at the end, I ended up back on my back because that's what I wanted.

So if you end up on your back because you want to, Go you that's fine. It's not a problem. I still have up here speak up and shut up, which I get in trouble for my team all the time. But what I mean is advocate for what you want. Tell your doctor what you prefer and then zip it because when you're pushing, if I'm there, okay, mama, let's get your legs in the stirrup and let's get you on your back and you don't want to just say no, thank you.

Her name is ashley She's training to be a postpartum doula Got pregnant with baby number two She was actually one of my students for baby number one for cooper and she got pregnant again And she asked me to be her doula, which was awesome. And so I went and spent a week with her in Kansas, and I loved watching her put this into practice.

Her nurse was telling her to hold her breath and, you know, doing closed glottis pushing. And Ashley just smiled at me, winked, and just kept doing it. breathing and moaning and making noise. So if someone tells you don't make noise, that's bull. If you want to hold your breath, she did a mix and she did some holding her breath, but she chose it.

Will I tear if I already tore? The number one thing I want y'all to know, tearing, the biggest factor when it comes to tearing is your genetics. some people are just predisposed.

just like some people are predisposed to acne, or scarring, it's skin. Your perineum is skin. Some of you guys are more predisposed to tearing. However, you can minimize the type and degree of tearing by doing some key things right now. That is eating a healthy diet.

The next thing is staying hydrated. Stay hydrated. That is going to be your best defense for less pain. your pain will be less severe and tearing. Stay hydrated. The other thing that you can do right now with your pushing is work on your mindset. Trust your body, prep yourself, educate yourself.

I'm not negating the power in that, but I also want you guys to trust your stinking body. Your body is powerful. Your body put together the fingers and toes, the heartbeat, the nose, your body can, Show you how to push now. We have to get out of the way so we know how to listen But your body is powerful and I want you guys if you're watching right now type My body is powerful.

I want to see you guys type that if you're watching this video My body is powerful throw it in there.

Tell your partner to tell you often your body is powerful. Hey, you know what? Your body is powerful because we actually, when we train our brain, we believe what we say. And you know, this is true because of all the nervous Nelly things you're telling yourself right now. It really affects. your experience.

And if you are anxious and nervous and, and saying in your head, like, Oh my gosh, what if I can't push? what if I'm not a good pusher? What if I'm too weak? What if I'm too overweight? What if I'm too out of shape? All of those things affect your birth and your pushing experience. So from now on, when you start having the negative thoughts, flip it to my body is powerful.

They're going to use the ones they're familiar with, which is usually the thought of me. So you have to be the one that takes initiative and learn the positions. I say use purposeful, purposeful positioning. That is my positioning class that you can add on when you join my classes. It is entirely dedicated to pregnancy, early labor, active labor, and pushing positions.

That is all it is, positioning. And it's video based, and I tell you the rationale, and I teach you how to practice them. It's very, very detailed. Now, we go into that in the course, but not as detailed as this. And this class is like a no brainer. And if you're, if you aren't, if you've already taken a birth class and you're on baby number two or three and you need a refresher, Purposeful Positioning is the perfect class for you.

Because you can either block the baby or open up for the baby. A lot of people think that your pelvic floor, you have to tighten and push out with your pelvic floor, but actually you have to release it. You have to relax and release. And that takes skill. It's not something, you know, we do it when we sit on the toilet, which is why the toilet is called the magic spot during labor.

the dilation station. Okay, one of the questions I got a lot was, can I get on my hands and knees If I have an epidural. So, this is one of my students. This is Ashley. She was actually a VBAC lab student, which means she had had a cesarean and wanted to have a vaginal delivery.

So she was a V back to C. This is her in labor. And for those of you guys who asked me, can I push on my hands and knees? with an epidural. This is Ashley in labor with an epidural. And you can see the picture on the right. That's Ashley on hands and knees with an epidural running. If you look really closely at the top of that picture, you can see her epidural pump.

But trust me on this one, she has an epidural. You can see the tape going down her back. She is incredible. when Reels first came out, I did one with Ashley's birth and she is dancing to, Missy Elliott, I think, while she's on her hands and knees. I need to repost that cause it's actually brilliant.

But she said during pushing, they found out that the baby was face up, OP, not a good position. And the doctor wanted to use forceps or do an episiotomy or something like that. And Ashley's like, heck no. Because she knew the positions, she knew her right, she knew the interventions, and she knew what would be more powerful than forceps or an episiotomy would be using her freaking body.

Yes, you can, but your team will have to help you get over. Okay, the next thing we're going to talk about, I want to show you guys this because this is so important, okay? I want you to look at this picture. Someone message me or comment and tell me what does the top of that say? What type of positions? If you're listening right now, I have a graphic of a bunch of different positions that they use during surgery. So what kind of positions are these? Surgical. Yes, that's right. Surgical positions. Lithotomy. Birth is not surgery. Birth is not surgery, right?

And then you've got midwives. Now, there are some midwives I call medwives who act more like a doctor, but obstetricians, they used to only do the surgeries. They didn't do a, an uneventful birth because they're trained as surgeons and we use what we know, right? So their go to position is actually for surgery, not for birth.

So I want you guys to know that position was actually came about because of a pervert king who wanted to see his women delivering, and he stood behind a curtain, and the doctor put her in lothotomy, all of his wives, or women, so that he could have a good view.

So I wanted to show you guys that. Okay. So we're going to talk about one of the most powerful tools that you can use during pushing. Let me see. Gravity. Simple. Why? Because gravity is common sense. You don't lay down to poop, right? You don't lay down. That would be kind of weird. Wouldn't we think that's weird if you laid down to poop? So, gravity is common sense and we don't go against common sense when we're constipated. Well, you're more constipated than you've ever been before when you're pushing out a human being. Trust me on this one.

I've got some on here. The mama on her side, when you're using gravity with a sideline, you would raise the head of her bed some. So squatting, sitting up, standing, hands and knees. Those are all gravity assisted positions. Here's the other thing. I did a bunch of research and I found a study that shows that gravity.

produces stronger contractions than pitocin. Now I can tell you from 16 years as a high risk labor and delivery nurse, there is not one doctor who comes on the floor that's like, do you have her up in gravity assisted position? No, they come on there like, is she on pitocin? How much pitocin? Did you go up on the pitocin?

So You need to know these things. You need to know the positions that you can use during birth to make your birth shorter, smoother, faster, hence why I've been teaching that class every week. So again, if you're just joining, you can comment faster to join our weekly master.

It's a mini birth class, and I'm teaching you guys just some powerful truths to make your birth faster and smoother. The other thing that if you are listening now or listening on the podcast, then you can go to labor nurse mama. com forward slash faster and join that class. So using gravity and upright positions, less fetal distress.

You're up and you're moving. The baby has more movement and has more oxygen flow. It also decreases your sensation of the pain. So it makes you feel that the pain is not as Painful. These are all winning reasons to use gravity. Again, this is why you have to learn the proper positions to work with your body.

Now, when you join my birth classes and you add your labor bat signal or you add purposeful positioning, then you get my pelvic movement guide, which we suggest that you print out, put it on a three ring and take it to your labor room because it shows you. What positions to do based on where the baby is in the pelvis.

That is everything when it comes to pushing. If your baby is up above that, that middle line that says zero, you do not want to be pushing. That is not time to push. That is time to use the right positions to move baby lower. This is why we talk about laboring down.

So I'm going to talk about what that means.

Now here's a little insider tip. This is why it's fun to join my classes because you get to hang out with me in the doulas every week on zoom. Or like this morning, I did a mornings with Trish with my members and we give you the lowdown, right? So here's a tip.

If you're unmedicated and your nurse checks you, right? And says, Oh, you're, you're eight centimeters. And then five minutes later, you feel the urge to push and your nurse says some nonsense like, Well, you're only eight centimeters. Girl, you could be full. If you feel that you need to push, chances are very high that it's time to push.

When you're looking at this, we recommend to our students and I recommend to you that you delay pushing until you're at a plus one, plus two, preferably plus two station. So you can see how low down into the pelvis that is.

So here's what I want for you guys. When your nurse checks you, if you have an epidural, you're probably not going to feel the urge to push. Sometimes you feel the pressure and it's hard to. not push. In that case, baby's probably at a perfect station. But if your nurse checks you and she's like, Oh, you're completely dilated.

You're going to wait until you're at what station you've asked her. If your nurse checks you and you have an epidural and she says you're negative one after you say what station, are you going to push?

Are you going to wait? You're going to wait. Now, if she checks you and you're plus two, then go ahead and start pushing. So what laboring down means? A lot of people get confused about laboring down. Now here's the thing. If baby's in distress, if there's something else weird going on, it may not be the best for you, but We've been doing laboring down since before the doctors knew we were doing laboring down.

So what laboring down means is you're just laying there passively, letting the baby move down. Instead of, Pushing for those two hours because you can guarantee first time mom, especially if you start pushing at a negative or a zero, even a one, you're going to be pushing for a long time. So by delaying that you can cut your pushing debt time down by hours.

So please, please talk to your labor nurse about this. During pushing is the most stressful time during your labor for the baby. This is when we see the most decelerations. This is when they get the least oxygen because when you're contracting, they are cut off from the supply. They have to use the reserve.

I don't know why it's not the practice everywhere. One of my students is on here, Jenny. She's pregnant with her second LNM baby, and she said with baby number one, Mellie, it was 30 minutes because of learning from me. And that was baby number one, you guys. Most baby number ones, you're going to hear horror stories.

increases your tolerance to pain. This is how our bodies work. Yep. Jenny said she got there at eight centimeters and someone else said she got there at seven. I'm telling you guys, the majority of my students, if they make a decision based on what they know now, of course, there's some people who make decisions based on fear, but we try to teach you how not to do that.

And that's why we have our labor bat signal add on our students can add on the labor bat signal, which is a group. Chat on telegram with me and two doulas and our mama, and that starts at 36 weeks to eight weeks postpartum. So we're in there when she starts getting fearful or she thinks her water broke or her doctors telling her some asinine tip, and she can weigh it back with us.

I'm very unique in this. birth education space because my students call me crunchy with a side of medical. I do believe that there, I'm a high risk labor and delivery nurse. I do believe there's a need for us. I do believe that you need our interventions when you need them, but you sure as hell don't need them when it's convenient for someone else.

So one of my mantras inside of my community is nothing out of convenience or curiosity. And my students will bleep that out during their labor. I had one student, the doctor wanted to break her water, which I teach my students to delay or not do at all. And she said, nothing out of convenience or curiosity.

Her midwife was like, okay, no problem. And her water broke on its own, like 10 minutes later. So the next thing I want to talk about, which is so important and I don't think a lot of people talk about, is you have to find your voice. You have the most powerful voice in the labor room. More than mine, more than your provider, more than anyone in the hospital, your voice carries the most power.

Do not negate how powerful your voice is. And again, I'm going to refer to Ashley's birth. So I was with Ashley in her birth. And my hands were tied. I had no power. So even though I knew some BS crap was happening during the night, her day shift was amazing. Her night shift was amazing too. She just was new and green, but there were some things going on that I was getting a little pissed off about.

And finally I really spoke up, but really my, I had no power. Ashley did. But Ashley was laboring. She didn't feel like talking. She didn't feel like advocating. During your labor, your voice is the most powerful. Second to that is your partner. The two of you can accept and refuse anything. Now, I teach my students, we can refuse anything, but should we?

S. and you can bet your damn dollar that a lot of them, Use interventions to speed up your process so they can go home or go out or eat dinner or sleep. It happens all the time and if you think it doesn't, you're wrong. I'm telling you, your voice is the most powerful thing that you can bring into the labor room.

Again, you have to be educated to know what your options are because if you don't know the options you don't have any. So here's why. Let me find the right, you know, here's what you do now. All right. What do you, what do I mean about the voice? You have to feel confident in your rights.

If it's not emergency, ask for time. You don't have to. So there are times when a doctor may say, you know, we just need to do this or do that. Well, okay. Is that an emergent decision? Is there an alternative? Can I have time to think about it? Sometimes time is all your body needs. Seriously.

This is so important. You have to start having the conversation early. So I'm going to give you an insider tip, what I teach my girls. If you're 18 weeks and you say to your doctor, Hey doctor, I took a birth class. Labor nurse mamas because it's the best in the world.

You can say, no, I really would like to hear your thoughts. Now, because if he comes back and says, well, I push everybody in the thought of me, it's safer. You need to get your butt out of there or you need to say, Hey, I'm going to refuse that. And you won't be doing that to me. If you're not confident enough in doing that, get a provider who will support you and the natural process of birth.

So start talking about it early. You can switch providers all the way up to 40 weeks. Here's another insider tip. You can fire your doctor during labor. So if they are being completely opposite of who you thought they were. You can fire them and they legally have to leave your room and we legally have to provide you with a new provider.

I can't tell you guys how many times I'm there at the bedside, okay, you're going to grab your legs like this, you're going to do this, and that's not going to sink in. That doesn't work. You have to be educated for birth before you step into the birth room. During pushing, be confident to ignore.

While you're pushing, just like I said Ashley did, they were telling her what to do. She just looked over at me with the sweetest little smile. Did a little wink at me and just did what she wanted. You don't have to fight for what you want during pushing or during labor. Just do what you want.

We're not going to manhandle you. We're going to go to jail if we lay hands on you and force you. I promise we're not going to. Here's another insider tip. It is a shift for your doctor and your nurses. It is not their experience. It's your experience. That's why you can't wing it. That's why you have to be educated.

It is not her birth. But for you and this baby, this is a once in a lifetime event. I don't care how many babies you have. This baby right now, it's only one birth. protect it, fight for it, and have your own voice in it. That is just so key. I'm going to show you guys a few of my students, which I love.

So Courtney said the birth course was so helpful. There were decisions to be made that I didn't even know existed. If you don't know your options, you don't have any, but because my husband and I were educated, we were able to turn down interventions that we didn't want.

Find your voice. It is the most powerful voice in the room. And Ari said, thanks to you and your classes, I was able to empower myself and my husband to make safe and educated decisions. So glad I stumbled upon your account. You seriously changed lives for women and I can't thank you enough. And then Brenna.

said, I went in today more confident in my body and my birth plan than I ever thought possible. Thank you for giving me confidence in my body and teaching me how to own my labor. Okay. I have a question for you guys. If you're listening on the podcast, get ready to shoot me a DM on Instagram or an email.

I'm the birth queen, alright? Birth queen. You are so powerful. You're not just a bystander who is sitting there, you know, at the side. You're the center of the universe when it comes to your birth. This is so freaking important. So again, here, let's recap.

Trust your instincts. What you do during pregnancy does affect your pushing experience. Let gravity work for you. Timing is everything. and find your voice. So if you're just getting here and you didn't hear this whole class, come back and watch it. I'll post it later. Okay, so let me just go over this because I don't talk about my birth classes all the time, but I feel like this is really necessary right now.

All in one. This is going to help you stop feeling anxious and nervous about labor and have confidence to understand what your voice should say and what you should say yes or no to. And it's going to teach you all the different pain management techniques. I want to say over 50. You're going to be able to understand your rights as a patient and a mama.

You're going to avoid the cascade effect of intervention and feel prepared for your best birth story. The VBAC lab is for my mamas who have had a cesarean. You can join either class at labornursemama. com forward slash join and you can use a coupon code love to get a hundred dollars off.

com forward slash join, and that is going to give you the entire birth class, but it's also going to give you 30 days free. Inside my mama membership and my girls who are on here can tell you how insanely amazing it is you get 30 days free and then it's 19 a month You can cancel at any time But the glory of the membership is this is going to give you Extra support, extra education.

Inside the membership, you're going to have a newborn academy class, the birth coach class, and you're going to have the postpartum recovery class. You're going to have over 70 workshop recordings. We do an expert workshop once a month. I think next week or the week after I'm doing a partner support class for the partners where we're going to talk to them and have the partners on so we can educate them.

So again, you can get everything for 197. It's normally 297 just for the birth class. You can get all of it for 197. Test out the community and hopefully you'll stay with us. All right, you guys have an amazing day. I need to go make lunch for my little guy. And I am just so grateful that you guys hung out with me.

You are going to push like a pro. Trust me, get educated, get prepared, know your options and find your voice. All right, you guys have an amazing day. it starts with getting educated. Education allows you to decrease the anxiety and increase the confidence.

I can't see you. The only way I can hear from you is if you hit a review. All right. I'll see you again next Friday. Bye for now.