title: Pushing techniques in the second stage of labour.
abstract: It is routine to require women to 'take a deep breath in, hold it and push' in the second stage of labour, but there is no scientific evidence to support this practice. In a randomized controlled trial of spontaneous (n = 15) versus directed (n = 17) pushing in the second stage, no adverse effects of spontaneous pushing on the woman or baby were found. There was a negative correlation between the length of the second stage and the venous cord blood pH at delivery in the directed pushing group, suggesting that a long second stage was disadvantageous to the fetus when the woman was using a directed pushing technique. No such association was found in the spontaneous pushing group, despite the fact that the women in this group had a significantly longer mean second stage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, University of Manchester, England.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Thomson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D001945:Breathing Exercises; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood; D006801:Humans; D007748:Labor Stage, Second / Q000502:physiology; D008880:Midwifery; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D010100:Oxygen