Typo: womman > woman, sorry

Maybe niederdrücken ?

I'm just giving this a bump because no one seems to have actually answered the question.

pressen, aktives Pressen
??

In my experience...

ohne persönlich etwas davon zu wissen:

gebären

ein Kind zur Welt bringen

---> to bear a child

"Pressen" wäre genau das, was hier pushing genannt wird - ob mit Anleitung oder ohne.
Gebären entspricht dem Englischen und braucht auch kein Objekt, wie es im Leo-WB vielleicht aussieht... (Duden-bestätigt ;-) )

re #8-9: 'Bear' alone is actually a different verb. 'Bear down' here is intransitve, unlike 'bear (a child)' which is transitive, and it does mean pressen, drücken, etc., similar to 'push.' Not to be indelicate, but the same verb could also be used, for example, for people trying to have a bowel movement. You could even use it for someone filling out a paper form with several carbon copies, though 'press down' is probably more common there.

Ojeoje, wie konnte mir das passieren!
Verzeih die vorschnelle Antwort...
Trotzdem glaube ich, dass pressen in dem Zusammenhang mit pushing als Übersetzung schon vergeben ist - oder wie übersetzt du sonst?

I thought "to push" was synonymous with "to bear down", but it seems "to bear down" is more the instinctive reaction, which can happen automatically, and "to push" is on command. Does anyone know the difference in German?

Overall, women who are in active labour may experience a shorter second stage with directed pushing rather than waiting for the natural urge to bear down.

Zusammengefasst lässt sich sagen, dass es während der Wehenphase oft zu einem kürzeren, zweiten Abschnitt kommt, in dem die Frau bevorzugt zum bewussten Pressen aufgefordert wird, statt ihrem natürlichen Wehenrhythmus zu folgen.

The verb 'bear down' doesn't itself mean that the action happens instinctively; like 'push,' it's also something you do intentionally, voluntarily. The verbs are two words for the same or similar actions, though pushing is harder and bearing down might be more gradual.

It sounds to me more as if the contrast is between trying to do it at someone's direction, with more effort, vs. waiting for the urge to do it.

I'm afraid it may be too late for the original poster. Too bad this wasn't marked [med.].

“Many women find their contractions in the second stage easier to handle than the contractions in active labor because bearing down offers some relief. Others don't like the sensation of pushing.
If your baby is very low in your pelvis, you may feel an urge to push early in the second stage (and sometimes even before). But if your baby's still relatively high, you probably won't have this sensation right away.”
http://www.babycenter.com/stages-of-labor?page=4

FWIW at this stage :-)

I think that “to bear down” and “to push” are used interchangeably and that clear distinction as in #12 is not actually valid. I think you will find as many examples of an instinctive “urge to push” as there are of an “urge to bear down” (= “Pressdrang”?). At risk of being indelicate, many women describe the sensation as an overwhelming urge to empty the bowels/go to the toilet, which is not really surprising as the same muscles are involved. I think that “bearing down” is sometimes used to make the procedure sound more natural and to distance it from directed pushing (the “old way”), as in the OP.

Royal College of Midwives guidelines 2012:
“There is no evidence to suggest that women need to be taught when and how to push (NICE 2007; Bloom et al. 2005; Sleep 1990). The practice of sustained breath holding in directed pushing may be harmful (Prins et al. 2011; Cooke 2010; Yildirim and Beji 2008; Thomson 1993). Women should be given confidence in following their own urge to push.”
http://www.evidence.nhs.uk/search?q=directed%...
“A better approach based on current evidence is to delay pushing until the woman feels the urge to push.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1...
“A new study is raising questions about one of the most accepted practices in the delivery room: urging women to push during contractions to help the baby come out.
The researchers, writing in the current issue of The American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, say there is no evidence that bearing down during contractions helps either the mother or the child.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/health/03ch...

I like BBee’s translation although, strictly speaking, the urge to push and contractions are not the same thing.