Parts of Labor I DID NOT Experience

1. Transition
I read so much about this and totally expected to have this time in between labor and pushing (where I felt like dying!) I really never had this moment. My labor experience was just a gradual spectrum from contractions through to pushing.

2. "You're 10 centimeters"
When I came back to the hospital the 2nd time at around midnight to be admitted, my midwife checked me and said I was around 8 cm... and that was the last time we ever talked about it. I was never told "OK you're at 10 cm, time to push!" This ties into the fact that I never experienced transition, I suppose.

Along these same lines, I DID experience cervical lipping. My midwife handled it skillfully and never worried about it, so I didn't either - just kept pushing!

Here's a great excerpt from a post on midwifethinking.com: The Anterior Cervical Lip; How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Birth  (I love midwifethinking!!)

"She begins to push with contractions, and her midwife encourages her to follow her body. After a little while the midwife checks to ‘see what is happening’ and finds an anterior cervical lip. The woman is told to stop pushing because she is not fully dilated and will damage herself. "

My nurse DID tell me not to push at one point ("Don't push! You'll tear yourself up!") after the midwife had said I was at 8 cm. I remember thinking to myself "Whatever lady, I'm fine, and I'm pushing...and I don't even know how to NOT push, so get lost!" Like I said, my midwife never discouraged me at all, and for that I am eternally grateful.