Breathing Techniques for an EASIER Labor

Hey there, welcome back to the channel. Today we're talking about using breathing techniques for your labor and what I love best about these techniques is that they're easy to learn and they can be really powerful. Now don't get me wrong, like I know someone's gonna leave a comment and say breathing will not take away the pain of labor and you're right. Breathing does not take away all the pain. It's not like an epidural where it's going to numb you, but using your breath, using these breathing techniques can be really powerful at taking the edge off the pain, making the pain more manageable, making that contraction more manageable, and it can be part of a strategy layered with other techniques that can really go a long way, if not all the way, in labor. I also love that breathing techniques like this can be used whether you are looking for an unmedicated birth, they can be used with an epidural if you have any other pain associated with an epidural, and they can be used during a cesarean birth. So these are really powerful and a tool in your toolbox that can be used many different ways. Okay, let's jump into this technique and I invite you to practice this along with me so that we can just go ahead and get comfortable with this breathing. Now the breathing technique that I recommend and I've seen supporting hundreds of people in labor, the one that is so easy and really powerful and doesn't take a lot of skill is the long slow breath in and the long slow breath out. And in between we do maybe a little pause at the top. So deep breath in, small, very small pause, deep breath out. Nice and slow and as long as you can out. So really easy to remember and really easy to do. You don't have to remember a pattern, you don't have to remember any kind of numbers or counting or long, and that length of breath, the long, it really depends on your comfort level. So for some people that might be a longer inhale and a longer exhale, or if your baby is right there on your lungs and you're unable to really open up your diaphragm that might be a little bit shorter, but no worries. The other thing that I love about this breath, it can effectively be done breathing in and out through your nose or your mouth. So it's whatever is comfortable for you. I've seen it work either way. I've seen people take an inhale with their nose and an exhale with their mouth. That seems to be one of the most common techniques, but I've also had clients that suffer from that pregnancy sinusitis where they're really stuffed up and they can't breathe effectively through their nose. So they're breathing in through their mouth and out through their mouth. So totally whatever is up to you. Don't feel like you're failing the technique if you're not doing it exactly the way that I'm doing it. So let's go ahead and do three of these breaths together. So we're going to take a long slow, a pause, and a long, long slow in, pause, long slow out. Ready? I like to use my hands as you see. Inhale, exhale. Now this is a great technique to, for partners to know. So make sure you share this with your partner so that they can help you support you in this breath. And what's great about it is that it's non-verbal. Partners supporting you won't have to say breathe in, breathe out, use your breath, use your breath. Also it can be done across the room. So if you have a contraction and they're on the other side of the room for some reason, coming out of the bathroom, whatever, they can just be like. And just having that technique is really, really helpful because no one really likes a lot of chit-chatting during labor. No one wants a lot of talking and especially when the contraction starts, you kind of want to hear nothing. You want to close your eyes. So if the contraction comes and your partner goes, then you just close your eyes and really, really powerful. These breathing techniques, they can be layered with other techniques. I think of them as the foundation. So if you learn other strategies for dealing with pain and labor, the breathing technique is, is your foundation of that. And then you can put them, put them all together. So if you can imagine using breathing technique while you are in the shower, so you're using hydrotherapy and then let's say you're in a position like maybe you're forward leaning on the wall. A lot of times they have those metal bars in the shower so that you can hold on to. So you're leaning forward. You've got that nice warm shower on the back. Maybe you even have some music in there. Add another layer there and then you're doing your breath. You can imagine how adding all of those up are really powerful. And I love teaching tools. And if you need a child birth class to learn other tools, I'm going to put the link to my class in the description below. Now that you have learned this technique, let's lock it in. I have seen that practicing these breathing techniques can really help you master this skill. So it can just set up that muscle memory. So it doesn't feel weird. It just feels super normal to use this steady breathing, this long in long out breathing. So what I recommend is bookmark this video so that you can practice. And I really recommend a daily practice. We're going to do one minute of this breathing together and I will put a link directly to this practice section down below the video. So if you bookmark the video, you can open it up, go to the description, click on the link, and do the practice. One minute of practice. And doing that practice several times before labor, maybe even once a day, will really set you up with a strong skill of breathing for labor. So I invite you to get comfortable. Maybe you know, drop your shoulders, get into a comfortable place. If you want to, as you're practicing this, try different positions or different areas of your home that you want to practice. That's always good too, just to kind of get that feel of what laboring at home would look like. When you're ready to, you know, start dealing with the contractions, then you'll be ready with breathing at a slower pace or a faster pace, you know what I'm going to say, it is totally okay. So get in there, spend some time with this breath, practice this breath. I promise you, it is going to be a really powerful tool for you anytime during birth. And if you found this video helpful in teaching this breath, hit that like button. And I'd love to have you as a subscriber to the channel. There's lots of good tools and techniques in other videos that I know that you'll really find useful as you prepare for your big day. And when we talked about layering up these strategies and I mentioned positions, changing positions is so helpful in labor. So I put together a video of my top 10 best positions for labor that I know you'll love to check out. I'm going to put a link to it right here. And until then, happy breathing and I'll see you right here back on the channel next time. Bye everybody.