03/16/2026
Day 2: The Accordion 🪗 (How Your Uterus Actually Pushes)
Being a doula and birth educator means seeing birth metaphors everywhere—even at a homeschool co-op craft table 🎨
Watching the kids (& myself let’s be honest) make these paper accordions, I couldn’t stop thinking about the uterus.
Think of the top of your uterus (the fundus) as these sturdy pleats. During labor, these muscles aren’t just “squeezing” and letting go; they are retracting. Every time they contract, the fibers shorten and thicken, “ratcheting” upward and staying there. Just like this accordion being compressed, the muscle mass is migrating—building a thick, powerful “engine” at the top. 🛠️
✨ Why this matters for the pushing phase:
We’ve all heard the advice to “push like you’re having a bowel movement,” but if we only focus on the “exit,” we might miss the power of the “engine.”
Physiology is universal, but the experience is individual. Whether your body triggers a Fetal Ejection Reflex (FER) or you are more consciously directing that energy, the goal is the same: stop fighting the “exit” and start working *with* the “engine.”
Instead of straining against your body, we want to harness the power of that “bunched-up” accordion at the top. When we use diaphragmatic breathing, our breath acts like a piston. It creates internal pressure that works with that thickened fundus to move the baby down. It’s not about “holding your breath and pushing from your face”—it’s about directing your energy to meet that incredible uterine pull. 💨
Welcome to Day 2 of 15 Days of Daily Birth Metaphors. Finding the power in the mundane. Because seriously—when you’re constipated, no one ever says, “Just push like you’re having a baby!” It doesn’t translate, so why do we do it the other way around? 💩
Reminding you that you can do hard things 👏
Ready to find your “engine”? Comment “PISTON” below and I’ll send you my favorite breathing tips to practice during pregnancy to power your pushing! 👇 (Right to your inbox, no hoops to jump through here).
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