![]() This doesn’t work as well for people who opt to have an epidural-approximately 71 percent of American women. But there is momentum building in the medical community to have women listen to their bodies and push when they feel like pushing. The standard of care in many hospitals is to utilize directed pushing, which is when the birth attendant offers the laboring person guidance including how to push and when to breathe. The nurse muttered something about having to do additional paperwork, but readied herself as I started screaming about it being “go time.” Seconds later, the med student handed me my daughter. ![]() ![]() Perhaps noting the look of terror on my face, the med student quickly grabbed a pair of gloves and a mask and positioned himself below me. Of course I couldn’t not push-my baby was coming. The nurse asked me matter-of-factly if I could try not to push until the doctor returned. The only people in the room with me were my partner, a labor and delivery nurse, and a medical student. (For those who have never delivered a baby, imagine the feeling of an urgent bowel movement, times 10,000.) My doctor, however, had left to see other patients. Within a few hours, the medication wore off, and I felt the uncontrollable urge to push. By 11, I was settled into a hospital room, marveling at how effective my epidural was, but terrified about giving birth. One day, three weeks before my baby’s due date, I started feeling bouts of teeth-clenching pain at about eight in the morning.
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