Giving Birth Gets Easier When You Learn This

Hi Bridget, I'm Lora Collins. I'm 63 years old and I am a retired childbirth educator and doula. I am SO proud of the work you are doing. This information is needed to empower young mothers to own their childbirth experience. I showed this video to my husband who is a chiropractor and he was deeply impressed. He has a lot of young mothers coming through his practice and we have decided to send any pregnant mothers to your course and your Youtube channel. Thank you so much for this. The world needs your voice and your knowledge.

First kid did an epidural and the counting and pushing and it was a rough birth that resulted in an episiotomy and level 3B tear. Second birth went to a birth center and when I tell y’all it was 10000% easier! My body pushed and pushed it really wasn’t even painful just intense and ended up only having minor tearing which was so much better when it came to recovery. Trust the Lord in how you were made, trust your body and find a team you trust and you’ve got this!

Oh yeah I was wondering what on earth I could do to make labor easier, and I first hear you say don’t push, yeah. I gave birth naturally to 4 kids and I haven’t pushed any of them. I just breathe. I can attest to this video to be facts

WISH I could show this to the horrible nurse who was telling me not to push and trying to scare me and saying I would tear if I didn’t stop. She had clearly never been through birth her self nor did she have enough knowledge or sympathy to be a nurse. Luckily I quickly asked her to leave and the next nurse said “oh yeah you definitely cannot control the urge to push but try not to add to the push reflex until we’re ready”.

I ended up getting an epidural, but kept doing the breathwork I had been practicing during my pregnancy. I would watch the monitor for contractions, then breathe. It helped SO much even though I had an epidural, and I kept progressing along and only pushed a few times, maybe 3 or 4? I tore but since I was already numb I didn't feel it, so I'm thankful for that. So even if you do end up doing a medicated birth, breath work helps!!

Thank you so much for mentioning that this is largely only possible if going natural without epidural. Many videos online don’t add that key piece of information and then mamas wonder why their providers/nurses don’t practice this gentle method of waiting for the ejection reflex… it’s because so many people choose epidurals & then they don’t have or feel the reflex leading to more tearing, forcefully pushing, which is allll so stressful and so much more work! I understand their are times epidurals are desired & helpful but the facts around pushing with an epidural need to be more transparent 🙏🏾

Just had a completely natural birth no epidural. All your videos were extremely helpful. The nurses and the doctors thought I was crazy because they mentioned 99% of women get the epidural…. without your videos I don’t think I could have done this. Your meditation videos were also very goodand mentally prepared me to push with every surge that was unbearable thank you so much. Also I delivered on my knees for the first time . It was such a great experience I could feel the ejection that you referred to .

Also, for my first VBAC birth I had the urge to push BEFORE I was fully 10 centimeters dilated. The fetal ejection reflex was so strong but I ended up swelling my cervix and had to wait until that went down and I was fully dilated to push baby out. For my next births I still listened to my body and pushing with the reflex felt great for me! Babes were out in 11 minutes and 15 minutes for my 3rd and 5th births 🤗! Such a great tip to wait until you feel the pressure in between contractions. Thanks for sharing ❤️🙏🏿!

Before I birthed my first baby, our Bradley Method birth coach told me to wait for that urge to push even if I reached 10cm, so that’s what I did for the birth of our first but also our other 3 children. They all were born in 1-2 relatively easy pushes which was maybe 5 minutes—and with no tearing 🙌🏻

I had a successful VBAC - thanks to your videos and me believing you that I was built to birth!! However, as soon as I hit 10cm my midwife had me start pushing and I pushed for 2 hours - with no joy!! After 1.5 hours I did start to have the urge, but I was so exhausted (was a 36 hour labour). Ended up having a episiotomy and vacuum to help get baby out. Still so happy and proud of myself for having my VBAC, but with my next birth I don’t want to start pushing until I actually feel the urge to! Thank you so much for all this information Bridget!!

I love this. with baby number three, I stayed in the shower of my hospital room, swaying and humming. No one checked me, so we didn’t know how dilated I was. I came out of the shower so they could take my blood pressure and check my progress, but we didn’t make it 😂 my body just started pushing her down. I said “I think I’m pushing” so I got on all four and two pushes later I had my little girl. It was so different than my epidural births (which I was expecting to get this time! Just didn’t make it). I felt like a million bucks and it really didn’t hurt like I thought it would.

I had my son about 3 months ago at home and I let my contractions push him out. It was a wild feeling! It only took about 16 minutes once the pushing contractions started and I had no tearing and of course a lovely baby boy now!!

I listened to your birth meditations during my labor, they helped me relax and breathe my baby out ❤

I also think having a good team helps. I just had my first a month ago and my doula made sure to keep me on track with contractions. I labored at home as long as I could. By the time I went to the hospital I was 6cm and 100% effaced. My doctor, nurses, and doula kept me going and even when I was tired and my hips hurt they reminded me it wasn't time yet. When I thought it was time to push and get the baby out they knew it wasn't time yet until I finally felt like the baby was coming and THAT'S when they were like oh okay now the baby is coming. My doula asked if I was pushing or my body was, I remember saying "I don't know but he's coming" then the doctor and nurses coached me on how to push and everyone kept me motivated. Yes it was painful, but somehow I expected it to be worse. And I felt okay after a nap when my baby was out. I 😆

In the past I felt like bearing down and it was uncontrollable but with my most recent baby I felt like pushing but I felt like i was going to tear if I didn’t hold back a little bit. I was able to control my breath and pace my pushing a little bit to be more gentle and use some pressure to push his head down with my hand as well to help navigate him out and I had almost no tearing at all. Listening to your body is the way!

My lil guy is 3 months old now, and I'm still working through the disappointment that my midwife told me that I needed to push during contractions despite what I'd heard (like the info in your video). I had a long labor, but completely without complications or pain meds. When I was fully dilated I continued to down breathe through contractions. The midwife asked me why I was breathing and not pushing. At this stage of labor I think her asking/telling me this was enough to make me question myself- which is super disappointing in retrospect. I started to feel the fetal ejection reflex, I know, but after 3-4 sensations like that, the baby was just in the birth canal, not out. Eventually, after 2 hours of pushing hard during contractions, he came. I honestly think the midwife questioning me made it worse 😭, but in the moment you're so vulnerable! I just wanted to breathe my baby out, but it didn't happen that way.

Oh my goodness…. My son was born in the car accidentally and I 100% experienced this. I was not preparing for a natural birth but it’s what I’m planning for this go-round (baby #3). It was so surreal for my body to be forcing that baby out with no input from myself.

I had this with my son and it was a total game changer! I was just breathing and my body pushed by itself. No tearing, 7-10cm in 5 minutes!

I was looking forward to trying to breathe my baby out with my first birth. Unfortunately my baby was in distress due to nuchal cord and I had to "purple push" along with a vacuum assist to get him out quickly, which resulted in a third degree tear. I almost had to get a c-section, so I am glad that I was able to have my baby vaginally at all, and grateful the he was delivered safely. I hope I get a chance to try again with my second baby.

Thank you so much for these videos! With my second I had the fetal ejection reflex right after we arrived at the birth center (he was almost born in the car) and that was my best pushing experience. With my third I started trying to push before I had the urge and I ended up exhausted, it was extremely overwhelming, and got a bad second degree tear. With this fourth baby I'm going to really try to listen to my body and be patient again. Thank you for your educational info!