Can you really 'J breathe' a baby out...will the midwife laugh??

[SquidgerInMyBelly]

Hi all,

38+ wks and was frightened - tried the Marie Mongan hypnobirthing book and cd and thought they were really helpful - I feel much more confident about the whole business which I suppose is half the battle. This approach advocates not doing forced pushing but to 'J' breathe the baby out i.e. you do a short big breath in through your nose and breathe it out down and up as though trying to breathe down into your vagina. Supposed to keep it all relaxed and open. We have both tried it (ha ha the insanity of pregnancy!!) does work when on the loo (sorry!) by way of shorter controlled little pushes.....but this kind of goes against everything I've seen (admittedly One Born Every Min) of what they tell and expect you to do.....can you really 'breathe' the baby out and will the midwife think I've lost the plot if I don't want to go for the big pushing as hard as you can approach????

Any thoughts - has anyone J'ed it out??

Much love xx

I didn't want to push my third out and told the midwife I was going to let it happen naturally.

Midwife noticed i was pushing before I did, sometimes you can't helping pushing!

I only pushed right at the end - maybe three times, and probably too hard because he bloody shot out - and throughout the labour was encouraged by the amazingly supportive midwives to let my body do all the work.

I didn't feel relaxed or confident about it all of the time by any means, but my experience of birth was very far from the "push-push-PUSH!" Hollywood-ised version of it, and I'm very happy about that.

As long as you haven't had an epidural ramped up too high, you will naturally feel the urge to push during the second stage and that's fine, go with it!

The time to try not to push and to "breathe" the baby out is during the crowning - when the baby's head is emerging. If you try and avoid pushing at this point, with any luck, you'll also reduce the likelihood of tearing (no guarantees, but being gentle at this stage seems to be a good policy!)

Once you get to that stage you can't help but push though mw did tell me that I was breathing dd2 out. I had no knowledge of hypnobirthing.

With first baby had epidural & followed everything mw told me to do with regardsto pushing. With second waters only went right at the end after my body gave a massive push all by itself & babies head started decending. I didn't push, my body just did it on its own & it was a lovely birth. I'm sure your mws will be fine with it (I didn't tell mine because I didn't have the intention to not push until I was in that moment & realised my body was doing it all anyway!:))

I tried to breathe DS out, for 2 hours! Eventually he was getting distressed so I agreed to try 'coached pushing' and he was out in 30 mins! So for me, clearly it didn't work as planned, but it must work for some people, can only go by my experience

my antenatal class leader (a MW) told us to try that.
she said it's a yoga thing.

in the event, I didn't really get to do much of that, because DD was a bit stuck - I wanted to spend my time on the toilet pushing her out, and (after thread-after-thread of it on here), knew I had to poo, and somehow I couldn't get over that hurdle - I needed to poo before I could accept that the baby was going to be pushed out - like the poo was in the way! (I don't think there was a poo in the way, but DD did have her hand attached to her head by her cord, so she wasn't moving)

Done it! Keep chilled throughout the labour, relaxation is the key. Breathing the baby out is just like... not sure really... I imagine it like the muscles rippling the baby down gently (like a snake swallowing a hippo!).

When you push, you arent really doing much more that exhausting yourself and tensing all your muscles!

I did Maries course (as a trainer and I was alrealy a therapist, and we really are the worse patients) and it did work for me. I am a complete chicken when it comes to pain, not hipp-dippy in the least and knew all the drugs I could have and when. Didnt even need gas and air - I was curious as someone siad it was laughing gas, but to be honest, I couldnt be arsed to try it as it would mean moving and taking the cap off the end of the hosey thing. I am so lazy!

A client of mine overheard her midwife say 'she looks dead!' when she was in labour.

Like you I was a bit worried about the whole 'J breath' thing, I decided to use the Natal Hypnotherapy system which teaches you techniques to get into a calm and relaxed state- allowing you to breathe naturally without remembering how to do a particular type of breathing...I found keeping my breath even, deep and slow really helped work through those tough contractions...I have had three fab homebirths and so grateful to Natal Hypnotherapy for the effective birth preparation..I used the CD's and they also now have workshops. Have confidence in your baby and your body - I'm sure you will have a beautifully breathed out baby in your arms very soon :-) x

I could have kissed my midwife at the 28 week check up! It's my first and I was nervous but determined to be strong in my decision to tell her as things were progressing so nicely, and as they're such homebirth advocates, that I wanted to book one for myself. That I didn't want interference from the midwife, that I hoped she would facilitate but not take over, and I definitely didn't want some aggressive shouting "Puuuuush" at me. I want my body and my baby to set the pace, not someone I hardly know and who isn't me in that moment!

We then had a lovely discussion where she talked about how I could breathe the baby out provided I focused on the right breathing techniques throughout. I honestly almost squealed with delight. I know it's my first, I know everyone rolls their eyes and thinks/says "you just wait, you'll be begging for an epidural". But I do think it's possible to actively look forward to your birth, to enjoy the process and to have a positive experience within the parmeters that it will hurt. Pain doesn't have to equal fear, we don't have to go into this experience with negative expectations.

My midwife was very pro me having a homebirth, was very encouraging of my approach to try and breathe the baby out and to be as upright and active as possible. I'm sick of having to put in the caveat of "But we'll see how I get on" for all the negative naysayers. It's lovely to hear of all the women on this thread who had the kind experience I hope to

I'm looking into this as well for this child.

With my first, I got the urge to push and did what my body was telling (but definitely not breathe the baby out - I think we're socially conditioned to think we need to push them out). Anyway, I remember the (lovely) MW telling me to push at one point and and literally shouted at her NO! I wasn't feeling it IYKWIM and so I did nothing until I had an urge to push and DS came out. The second stage really didn't last long for me (20min or so) and I didn't tear.

For what it's worth all my friends who have had an epidural have torn pretty badly, I suspect that's because they pushed at the wrong moment. MW can definitely help but at the end of the day I think you know your body best so do what feels right.

Good luck x

I gave birth to DD 5 weeks ago and didn't have to push, by that I mean I didn't have to try and push. I just kept breathing through each contraction ( don't hold your breath which is what I felt I wanted to do). She just delivered herself
I had read the book and listened to the Margaret Howell natal hypnotherapy CD and listened to it during labour too. I had a water birth which helped as I stayed upright. She was born in 4 hours from waking with tummy ache at 2am to her popping out just after 6 am.
No stitches either. I would recommend using breathing but don't know about this J breathing?
Good luck, relax and focus on your breathing, I experienced contractions as very intense sensations rather than pain. However they do take some concentration to deal with them, but I found if I concentrated on each one as it happened and not on what. Was going to happen next I was fine.

Oh yes and my second stage was 7 mins, I think because I let me body and my baby get on with it rather than pushing when told to.

My body

I did it and my midwife and student midwife were great and really supportive. When another medic asked me how long it had taken to push the baby out, my midwife said" She breathed the baby down actually"!

I have done the Mongan method labour breathing through 3 labours now. In DS1's case I never got to push as the induction failed and I got stuck at 8cm.

With DD and DS2 I breathed to cope with the pain and it worked really well. Tbh by the time I get to the pushing stage I sort of shout my babies out but the breathing takes me right to that point. One thing I realky focused on was the out breath. I imagined giving my baby my breath. So much so that when labour started picking up a bit with DS2 I heard DS1 (still at home at this point) say to DH "Daddy, why has Mummy fallen asleep?"

Laughing through quite a strong contraction was an interesting way to manage it.

Midwives were great in last 2 births - unobtrusive but there when they needed to be. Like good waiters! With DS2 I was in the water on all 4's and the midwife said "just do what your body's telling to do because I really can't see what's going on down there." Was in hospital for 10.40, in pool for 11.30, and DS2 arrived at 12.36.