Does "breathing" through contractions really help???

[Paranoid1stTimer]

Never done the birth thing before and am just wondering if breathing through the contractions helps or if this is all just a ploy to keep your mind off things and to concentrate on something other than the pain?

I understand the technicalities of oxygenating your blood supply and how this helps muscles relax and the baby and all that but I have never been one of these people who can just relax when you are really freezing out in the snow because "if you tense up you will just feel colder"

I am a stubborn b!tch sometimes so am worried about not being able to calm myself down when the actual labour part starts...

THanks for any feedback xxx

I found the only thing that helps is to push through the contractions. Pushing decreases the pain. Nobody had told me that before.

Breathing is pretty much essential to staying conscious so yes you do have to do it .

I actually did find that slowing my breathing down and counting through the contractions helped. I knew if I got to 30 I was at the height of the contractions and that it got easier from this point on and that when I got to 60 it would be gone completely.

Which doesn't sound like much comfort when you know another one will be along in another 30 seconds, but in the moment you only have to cope with one contraction at a time.

And another vote for gas and air. Once I had floated back down from the ceiling to where the little pixies were I could explain to them all how much fun it was

I got through my entire labour with a combination of deep breathing and mooing

oooh the mooing. How fantastic is the mooing

Nope sorry can't say it helped.
I tried humming which was very helpful but dh said it was embarrassing him so I had to stop!!!!

HAving said that I had a posterior birth which resulted in back to back contractions almost from the beginning of labour so don't think anything would have helped except drugs or an epidural.

It helped me. So much that I found that it hurt more when I tried gas and air because it interfered with my breathing.

I also did humming and wriggling my hips on a birth ball which really helped through most of labour. By the time I got to the mooing bit, though, it was a compulsion, rather than a technique, iyswim!

Yes. Got to 8 centimetres with no pain relief by using three-stage yoga breathing.

I find breathing helpful generally. I must admit I've never really tried not breathing for any length of time but I have a feeling that it isn't advisable.

But, yes 'breathing' did help me cope with the pain and make the most of each contraction. What didn't help was DH standing around looking stricken and telling me to 'breathe!'. I told him that I was breathing and he'd know if I stopped because I'd turn blue!

i found it helped for both of my labours, with dd i was 8cm by the time we arrived at the hospital, and with both, i only had g&a.

Where I live breathing techniques are the only pain relief option apart from an epidural (that's right! no g&a!). I ended up with an epidural but for the first 8 hours of painful contractions found the breathing techniques great. I had done yoga and it really helped me feel a bit more in control and able to handle it.

One tip I would give is try to make sure your dp or whoever will be with you knows the techniques well and can guide/help you if necessary. My husband tried his best but for me things got so much better when my physiotherapist showed up and did all the counting etc for me. By then I was losing sight of whether I was over the worst bit of each contraction or not, and like someone said it really helps knowing that the pain will get less again before it gets more.

It helped me, my active labour lasted about 2 hours (first timer) hadn't practised breathing but it just comes naturally when you're hving contractions there are only a few things you can do and breathing is one of them1 Good luck

DD was a classic fast 2nd arrival, and there was no time for any drugs, I don't like G&A and didn't feel like a water birth. I got through the whole thing on 2 aspirins and lying on my back pretending I was in the breathing bit of a yoga class, so yes breathing definitely helped me. (Lying on your back isn't generally recommended but that is what I felt like doing).

I was really pessimistic but it really really does work. Best thing for me was that DH really believed & coached me - I would have had more pain relief without him.

This is a great thread, very encouraging! With my first I just wanted the drugs straight away, had no idea about any of the down sides (it was 8 hours before the epidural and top ups had worn off and I could move my legs again, so didn't see DS until then as he had had to go to the special care unit ).

Am due in two weeks and am DETERMINED to get through it with breathing and G&A or a waterbirth... it's great to hear that it can be done

yes

I found that the more you "steel yourself" against the pain, the worse it was. For me, breathing (just nice, even breaths) helped me flow with it. I had 2 waterbirths, First one I had a bit of G&A, but it didn't seem to do much. Also (for me) remembering to relax my shoulders etc - so going with the pain rather than against it, really helped.

Good Luck

Totally helped me - ds I got to transition without anything, having done a wonderful yoga course in pg (then LARGE amounts of gas & air), with dd, managed with yoga breathing alone.
Try out a few things now (you will feel an arse, but helps see what works for you) - dh would count 1,2,3; in,2,3; out,2,3 for me - and that really focused me. As did 'golden thread breathing (imagine you can see your breath going out of your mouth as golden smoke. breathe out slowly & smoothly to create a perfect smoke ribbon. Sounds trip-y, I know - perhaps one to try on g&a )

Yes, and relax your shoulder, throat & neck with every out breath

I haven't read the whole thread, so don't know if it has already been said...

I spent my whole first labour shouting nooooooooo everytime a contraction came, then in between first and second labours I read/saw/heard(???) something about not saying no to the contractions but saying yes and to concentrate on a visual picture of everything opening up and the contraction actually helping the baby down and out.

So second labour, I said yes to the contractions, imagined what I said before and although the shouting, screaming and mooing still happened, it didn't happen for a while...!

I also spent the majority of my short labour going mooo- much to the amusement of my dh, he actually rang my mom and told her it was time to come to the hospital because I was in 'moooing labour' bless him.. he now refers to me as the milk lady- the image of a fat cow obviously springs to mind!!! Managed it with no drugs and also tried to push through each contraction which I think helped with the speedy dilation

Absolutely it helps. I 'resisted' during my first labour and tore substantially. I tore agin in the second labour even though I went wiuth the flow much better. But I had expected to tear in any case as scar tissue is less flexible than normal flesh. But in my third labour I totally 'went into' myself, allowed my body to relax and get onw tih the contractions, and ended up birthing and 11lb baby without tearing.

What you must remember ist hat your body 'knows' what to do. Your mind is only along for the ride. Don't try to control the labour, use your strength of mind to help your body, rather than to try to tell it what to do.

Labour is fantastic - bloody tough, but bloody fantastic. You feel so proud of yourself afterwards! Justifiably!

yes, concentrating on your breath is a really helpful technique, not just in labour but during those uncomfortably internal examinations as well. And scans where they poke you repeatedly.

My midwife told me to count each breath during each contraction. This wasn't the "go into yourself! don't think about time or pain!" advice I got from hypnobirthing books, but it worked for me. Even at its worst I knew that I only had to get through (say) fifteen breaths, and then I could have a rest. No contraction ever lasted longer than fifteen breaths!