Cervical Swelling During Labor

Throwback to my first labor almost 2 years ago. 41w2d no induction, no epidural, etc. Very long labor, very tiring, then I get to a 9 and my body starts pushing. Like, so strong I can't stop it. The nurses freak out with every push, telling me that I need to stop because I'm not fully dialated, so my cervix is going to swell and my dilation will go backwards. This is my body pushing. It's basically impossible to stop it. I'm trying with all my might, but it's really draining me, and not working anyway. This by far was the hardest part of my labor. I just want to know if this has happened to anyone else? What did you do? Were the nurses just making me stop because my midwife wasn't there yet? I feel like during childbirth, your body knows what to do, and you should let it do it's thing, so I feel like fighting my body wasn't the right thing to do. I can't find any helpful information online. I'm about to have my 2nd any day now, and I'm so nervous this will happen again.