breathing in childbirth ... learn to directed breathing

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Directed Breathing


Directed Breathing

Is a specific type of breathing that is a Must Do for every type of birth.


Directed Breathing enables you to give your total attention to your baby’s effort to be born rather than be passive.Directed Breathing has also been the number-one skill used during Caesareans, whether after labor or non-laboring.


Breathing and Labor

Women who use positive types of breathing throughout labor

Focus on each breath cycleConcentrate on how they breathe, andMake sounds that are controlled and appropriate.


Women who use negative types of breathing

Sound stressed,Moan, groan, and sometimes scream.

During labor, always remember to NOT waste your breath.Labor is energy, huge energy.The energy of hard work coincide with an increase in the pain.


The purposes of Directed Breathing:

1. Expand specific parts of your body with your inhalation.

2. Use your exhalation to relax specific parts of your body.

3. Use your breathing to focus on the task and the moment at hand.


Directed Breathing as a Focus

Childbirth is not the only experience where using breath as a focus helps.You might already be aware of this and have done so to help yourself or others.Think about getting a tattoo or a root canal, doing an athletic event or presenting at a company meeting.


Directed breathing is when you are very conscious of your breathing. It is

When you pay attention to what your inhalation and exhalation sound like so you can self-evaluate whether your sounds indicate you are coping or not.


Pay attention to how you vary the depth/shallowness of each inhalation/exhalation so you can adapt each type/variation in just the right manner for yourself, depending on what you are experiencing.Your ability to share breathing with your partner will help you cope.Inhale into or exhale from a specific part of your body.Expand or relax/soften specific parts of your body.


Woman

In labor and birth, use Directed Breathing during a contraction and/ or in between contractions (see “The 5 Phases and the Bell-shaped Curve”).Make a choice during labor to use breath as a focus. It can be a matter of self discipline to override a negative and restless response to pain, in order to accept pain as part of the process and become a good manager of the experience.


Coach

As labor gets more intense, she has to turn inward and not fight the process, and external stimuli can be very distracting.If your partner is having difficulty getting to that place of focus inside herself, suggest that she try focusing on an object or image, closing her eyes, or looking into yours –one of those should help her focus her breath and herself.


Learning Directed Breathing

Learning to breathe well has been the easiest of the Birthing Better Pink Kit skills. That’s because we breathe all the time anyway.During labor we come to appreciate the value of our breath.


Exercise: Directed Breathing

This is a form of Mindfulness: focus, paying attention, and concentration.

1) Now place your hand on your chest: breathe into your hand, and feel your hand and chest expand.

2) Exhale from this area while you intentionally relax under your hand and in your chest. This is Directed Breathing.


3) Put your hand on each of these places in this order: belly above your navel, belly below your navel, and sacrum.

4) Remember to intentionally expand each area with your inhalation and relax each area with your exhalation.

5) Put your hand on specific places next: your left shoulder, your right thigh, your lower back, and the back of your head, and direct your breathing into each of these parts.


Directed Breathing and Dilation

Breathing well is an invaluable tool for managing the pain of a contraction, and it will also assist the dilation of the cervix.Dilation occurs throughout the 1st stage of labor until the cervix is fully open (10cm).


Let’s see what dilation looks like. Both of you do this.

Make a fist with one of your hands and look at the hole created by your index finger curled into your palm-not much of a hole.


Now, place the tip of your index finger to the tip of your thumb and make a circle. That’s about 3cm. You should be able to get three fingers of your other hand into that hole.Use the fingers of both your hands to make a circle, with your index fingers overlapping and your thumbs overlapping- make the index finger of the right hand stop at the base joint of the index finger of the left hand, and make the thumb of the right hand stop at the base of the other thumb. You’ve made a hole created by your two hands that is about 5-6cm.


Look at the hole you just created. As you inhale, permit your fingers to create a slightly larger hole. With the next few inhalations, feel how you can further open that hole.Finally, create an in-breath that opens the hole all the way, so that the tips of your index fingers touch each other and the tips of your thumbs touch each other.


EXERCISE: DIRECTED BREATHING AND THE BELL CURVE

First do this while sitting, then standing, then lying down.The skill you’ll develop from this exercise is what you’ll use to encourage and follow effective contractions.All effective contractions are bell-shaped, which means they always have a peak.


Both of you do this. It’s vitally important that the birth coach knows how to create relaxation inside their pelvis.

1) Tense up inside your pelvis, and hold the tension.

2) Now direct your inhaled breath, to expand inside your pelvis, letting go of the tension.


3) Do a normal out-breath.4) With your next inhalation, expand

the relaxed areas down there a second time.

5) Exhale normally and repeat and expansive inhalation a third time.


Try one more exercise in directing your breath.

1) Sit opposite each other in comfortable positions.

2) Doer: Tell the Recipient where to place their Directed Breathing, and pay attention to each other.

3) Recipient: Expand on the in-breath and relax on the out-breath.


Talk about what you have discovered. Notice thatYou may or may not have been able to see changes in the other person’s body when they breathed into a specific place.This task involved both of you working together.You each had a job.


Directed Breathing and Touch

You’ll need to be familiar with the specific forms of touch-relaxation in “The Right Touch” to do these next few exercises.


EXERCISE: DIRECTED BREATHING + DEEP/RISING TOUCH

Take turns. Combining different skills requires real teamwork.

1) Doer: First, apply your deep-pressure touch. Coordinate when you lighten your touch with your partner’s expansion-inhalation.


2) Receiver: You’ll breathe normally until your partner has applied their deep-pressure touch. As the touch begins to lighten, use your inhalation to expand under your partner’s touch.

3) Repeat, but this time the Receiver uses their exhalation to relax while the doer lightens their touch.


EXERCISE: DIRECTED BREATHING + STILL/STATIC TOUCH 1

1) Doer: Touch some part of the other person’s body. Rest your hand on that part with intent, and keep it there while your partner completes three breath cycles.

2) Receiver: Without forcing your breath, inhale and expand that spot, then exhale and deeply relax in that spot. Repeat that expansion and relaxation two more times, each time expanding then relaxing more deeply.


3) Doer: Repeat this exercise on two different parts of your partner’s body.

4) Receiver: Taking three breath cycles gives you the time to truly use that Still/Static Touch to deeply, deeply expand and relax.


EXERCISE: DIRECTED BREATHING + STILL/STATIC TOUCH 2

1) Repeat the above exercise while the Receiver changes into another position: standing, lying, or kneeling.

2) Doer: Touch the exact same spots. Your purpose is to allow the Receiver to notice how the same spots soften/relax better or not so well depending on their body position. Pay attention to which positions create the deepest expansion and relaxation.


3) Receiver: As you use your three breath cycles to deeply relax in each of these places, notice how each spot relaxes differently now that you are in a different position. This can be a light-bulb moment!


Common Language for Directed Breathing

Woman can say: Please remind me to

breathe in through my nose, and out through my nose or mouth.breathe more deeply. let go of any tension as I exhale. expand inside my pelvis on my next inhale.


Coach can say: Really use your exhalation to relax anywhere you feel tense. Use a cleansing breath after each contraction. Take a really deep breath in, and then make your exhalation like a big sigh. (This releases all the built up/accumulated tensions.)


Benefits of Directed Breathing

It is a great tool for opening up, expanding, relaxing, and reducing tension anywhere in your body and mind. It is the simplest skill a Birth Coach can use to help a birthing woman stay in control. It is easy to do without force, and it doesn’t take lots of effort. It is sustainable and relaxing, not tiring. It doesn’t leave you feeling funny in your head or body (i.e. hyperventilating). You can modify it as you adjust to the changes of the labor process.

breathing in childbirth ... learn to directed breathing

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