Birth Knowledge: Mobility in Labor and Optimal Pushing

Pregnant or planning to be? Test your knowledge of important childbirth issues that can affect you and your baby's health and well-being. 

True or false? 

The best place for a woman in labor is in bed. (The answer is false)

- Being up and around improves contraction quality decreases pain women prefer it and we have no evidence of harm. 

The best way to push out your baby is:

A. Push in a position other than on your back. 

B. Push according to your own internal urges. 

C. Have a slow, controlled birth of the head in-between contractions. 

D. When a big baby is expected, give birth on all fours or turn to all-fours if the head is born, but the shoulders hang up (shoulder dystocia). 

E. All of the above. 

F. None of the above. 

(The answer is all of the above.)

The benefits of these strategies are shorter pushing phase less likely to tear and all fours is the best position for releasing stuck shoulders quickly and easily.