Talk to me about breathing

[notanumber]

Did feck all in terms of breathing during first labour. It was sheer unadulterated hell.

Think perhaps I'd better find out about how it works (In. Out. Right? How hard can it be? ) before the next go-around.

Any tips/links/books for me?

i did yoga for preganancy and our teacher made us do this breathing called ujjayi. it is all about concentrating purely on the breath and that being your focus rather than what is going on around you. she talked about breathing long breaths down behind the baby. if you google ujjayi you might find some info.
not sure quite how useful i found it, but i guess you never know how things would have been if you'd not bothered at all. personally i think it was most advantageous when it was combined with the gas and air!

My only tip came from my antenatal teacher - but holds true for all types of pain, not just labour.

Apparently it is instictive to hold breath or take quick shallow breaths when we experience pain (think about hitting your thumb with a hammer and holding your breath before letting loose with a few choice expletives). However, this just holds tension within our body which makes the pain more intense.

So, the thing to do is to take slow deep breaths which allow you to relax through the pain.

The way to achieve this is to breath in through your nose for a count of 3 and out through your mouth for a count of 5.

Helped me through two labours and in lots of other situations (most recently when I walked into the stairgate).

Kerry - sounds a wee bit painful perhaps?? Not surprised you weren't interested in breathing techniques at the time.

I should clarify as don't want you all thinking I wove lentils while labouring. Labour no.1 I eventually had lots of different medical pain relief too, but the breathing got me through 3 days of intermitent contractions, many hands shoved up fanjo checking what was happening etc.etc. before I was put on a syntocin drip and needed all the help I could get.
With Labour no.2 I was mostly in the car shuttling back and forth to hospital (having been checked and told that I wasn't in labour and to go home and wait) so breathing was my only option and helped me avoid the urge to push in the car.

Thank you. I shall investigate your suggestions.