Write 10 pages with APA style on Pushing Methods Used by the UK Midwives during the Second Stage of Labor: Current Practice and Rationale. The midwives proceed by instructing the mother to continue pushing while holding their breath, with successful contractions (Hanson 2006. Hansen, Clark and Foster, 2002). This kind of practice has been done by many midwives for the purpose of shortening the occurrence of the second stage of labor and speeding up fetal descent, though the rationale and safety of the practice have not been substantiated (Yildirim, Beji, 2008). Nevertheless, there is mounting evidence showing that unplanned pushing is a better way of managing the second stage of labor than directed planning, which is typically done by Valsalva maneuver.

When all is said and done, many midwives in the United Kingdom (U.K.) and other parts of the world have continuously adopted the directed mode of attending to mothers when giving birth, during the second period of labor. In their study, Beynon (1957) observed that if allowed to undergo unplanned pushing in the second stage of labor. A recent study by Osborne (2010) found that midwives felt the need of supporting women without epidural anesthesia to start the efforts of bearing-down on when the women felt the need to do so. The majority of the participants, however, revealed that they did not provide direction when helping the mothers, which means many of them often, supported spontaneous bearing-down. Their study further revealed that most of the midwives started providing directive support when the fetal head appeared and when the final drawing out of the perineum was occurring. The other factor that influenced directive support was the tendency by the mothers to ask for more direction or when they appeared to be exhausted (Osborne 2010)

An unplanned push is accompanied by a release of numerous breaths and air within the intervals of bearing-down attempts (Roberts et al. 1987. Bloom 2006).&nbsp.