Maternal behaviour during spontaneous and directed pushing in the second
stage of labour
It has become custom and practice within the midwifery and obstetric
professions in the English-speaking western world for women to be required to
follow very specific instructions on how to push in the second stage of labour
There is very little literature on the behaviour of women using spontaneous
pushing m the second stage of labour In a pilot study of a randomized
controlled trial comparing spontaneous (TJ = 15) with directed (n = 17) pushing,
the behaviour of the women was observed and recorded The findings from the
observational part of the study are reported in this paper When pushing
spontaneously women do not instinctively take a deep breath, they do not start
expulsive effort with the commencement of the contraction, and they use both
open and closed glottis pushing In order to assist women in the second stage of
labour, those caring for them should be aware of what is normal behaviour
when women are using spontaneous expulsive effort