Breathing Exercises - any helpful (and simple) tips?

[HandMini]

I am 33 weeks pregnant, so starting to focus on the birth. Eeek!

Although I am happy with using medical pain relief, I would really like an insight into what breathing exercises people found most helpful. I've heard a lot about how breathing with the contractions etc will be helpful in early stages and can help women get very far through labour themselves.

I would be really grateful for recommendations of any websites / books that have been helpful, or even just a straightforward explanation of what you found most helpful. We are doing an NCT class next week so perhaps will cover it then, but would like to get my head round it myself first.

Also, any honest opinions of who useful (or not) you found breathing pain control to be...

Thank you all

I found breathing really helpful with pain relief (although I had a fairly easy labour). I found it helpful to really focus on the outbreath - breathing out as long and as hard as you could and then the inbreath was automatic and full!

I survived on breathing until transition when I then had gas and air for a bit.

Good luck!

What is transition - between dilating stage and pushing stage?

I would say you should practice whatever breathing exercises you decide upon. I went to pre-natal yoga and did a bit of breathing there but didn't practice and it all went out of the window once the contractions kicked in.

Sorry was caught up playing with ds..

Yep transition is where you are fully dilated and the baby starts passing through the birth canal. Most women panic/lose the plot/feel more pain at this point. I did all three and this was the point I started sucking down the gas and air.

I agree though practice the breathing as I think I really helps. I found concentrating on the outbreath gave me something to think about

Definately the outbreath is important - I felt pain relief at the very end of the outbreath. Counting can also be helpful e.g. I knew that after 5 breaths I was over the worst of a contraction. My sister found it useful to have her husband doing a countdown during pushing as a motivator. HTH

I had my first baby on Sunday. Woohoo!

I'd been doing pregnancy yoga throughout the pregnancy, and I found the breathing exercises to be extremely useful. I agree with the women above - focussing on the outbreath is most important (the inbreath takes care of itself!)

I was aiming for slow, controlled outbreaths through a soft, relaxed mouth. I also tried to keep my fingers and toes loose (rather than clenched) as this tended to have a knock-on effect in keeping the rest of my body relaxed.

So I was kinda thinking to myself "slow, soft mouth, loose fingers, loose toes" throughout the contractions.

Do some experiments in the next couple of weeks, especially at times of stress or discomfort. I practiced my breathing techniques when I went to the dentist at week 34!!

I found the breathing exercises with Natal Hypnotherapy hugely useful.

Thank you everyone, that is really helpful. Will definitely get some practice in, and what I wanted was something really simple, so I think if nothing else, concentrating on (i) long relaxed outbreaths and (ii) trying to count a number of breaths per contraction is the key - I think I won't be able to remember much else!!

Hi,

I found that breathing/contractions for me was just like jumping over waves in the ocean. Its VITAL that you have practised beforehand and start your breathing excercise as soon as the contraction starts - this enables you to get the pain relief (jump the wave) before the peak of it hits. If you get your timing wrong and havent started getting relief when the contraction kicks in, its just like getting caught under a huge wave - you feel panicky and overwhelmed and unable to get through it. You also feel bedraggled and tired afterwards instead of resting and preparing for the next one. Once I learned to start the breathing IMMEDIATELY when the contraction started I was able to "jump the wave" every time. I used breathing for early labour and added in a TENS machine when I felt it wasnt enough alone.

The exercise that worked best for me and that I practised a lot before hand was this one:

Try to breath in and out as slowly as possible and time how many seconds each breath in and out is. Try to make them at least 7 seconds long or longer if you can. Make sure you are not holding your breath on the change from in to out, and make sure you are not breathing out more than you breath in (you will get light headed!) You can get your partner to count the seconds for you, and you can try doing the exersises together. Try squeezing his leg as hard as you can with your fingers (do it until he shouts!) then repeat, but this time he does the breathing technique. You should both notice it actually increases his pain tolerance. You can also try the same thing holding an ice cube in your hand (you dont need to do this more than once, just enough to "prove" to yourself that the pain relief is real.

best of luck xx

I'd just like to add three things to what I said earlier...

1. The last couple of weeks of pregnancy are a good time to practice because there are lots of times of stress/tiredness where some slow, calming deep breathing might help you. Like trips to the midwife, being cramped on public transport or arguments with partner/family. All good opportunities to take slow, deep outbreaths :)

1. Breathing wouldn't only help in natural births, I imagine that in a scary C-section it'd be pretty helpful in keeping you calm if not actually being used as 'pain relief' per se. So it is really worth practicing, even if you end up using heavy pain relief.

1. I had my first baby on Sunday. It was gruesome and bizarre, but also exhilarating and not actually as bad as I thought it would be. I can honestly say that I have good memories of it. Good luck!!