What is Directed Breathing in childbirth?
Although breathing techniques were a popular way to prepare for childbirth in the 1970s, birth skills have gone out of popularity. The most common and well-known breathing techniques were Lamaze. This was very popular with expectant families particularly in the US at a time when childbirth choices had become more available.
The purpose of breathing techniques is to distract women from the naturally occurring pain of contractions. There are many theories surrounding the use of breathing techniques as a useful tool for self-management of birth pain. Another benefit of learning breathing techniques in giving fathers/partners an active role in coaching birth.
For most of the history of modern maternity medical care women laboured alone either in a ward separated by curtains, a semi-private or private room. By the mid-1960s women demanded the presence of their husband during labour, they didn’t want to be alone and wanted help in coping with the pain of labour. The most natural person to help was the husband. After all he was going to be a father and women rightly believed that men should understand how hard labour was. Many men felt left out of the whole birth arena. Although some cultures excluded fathers historically, there were many cultures where fathers were actively involved.
A man who learned breathing techniques was much more likely to actively help his partner manage contractions. This built the family relationship. Men appreciated the hard work of labour and their admiration of women increased and subsequently bonded more easily with their baby.
However, breathing techniques didn’t always work. The most common reason for this had to do with the intensity of pain. When the pain became very intense in the perception of the woman, often she felt out of control and lost control of the techniques she was taught.
This had a spin off effect for the man. Often men thought that the pain had shifted into a problem of some kind. This was mixed with a belief that the woman knew what she was doing, or that her feeling out of control was a normal part of labour. This often led to confusion. While the woman often wanted her husband to help her, he was often uncertain how to or whether he could or should. Sometimes he just wanted the obstetrician to come in and assist in helping her out of her misery.
Directed Breathing is an entirely different way to use our breathing in labour. We breathe all the time and will continue to breathe in labour whether we groan, scream or are very quiet. Breathing techniques are based on theories about breath, where Directed Breathing is based on what we do as humans when we breathe in different situations or activities.
The one and only contributing factor to a change in a woman’s breath in labour is directly due to the amount of pain she is experiencing. Pain is subjective, however any person who experiences what they perceive as pain, will find their breath changing. Usually one pain response is to increase the rate of our breathing or to begin to make sounds. Groaning, moaning, and hyperventilating are all part of this common response to feelings of pain.
Directed Breathing childbirth skills move us from merely using a technique to understanding how humans breathe when they feel pain and when we are relaxed.
Birth pain is unique. It’s usually not coupled with an injury, sickness or even a problem. It occurs naturally and is connected to the opening of the cervix that is, the closure of our womb. When a baby is ready to be born, the cervix must open. This stretching causes pain during the contractions that are the action of the womb to tug the cervix open.
Learning Directed Breathing skills is vitally important during pregnancy. All humans breathe the same way, so men and women will both understand what relaxed breathing feels like compared to stressed breathing. This means couples can work more closely and men can understand the sounds a woman makes in labour and what it means.
Directed Breathing skills create a focus to work with the baby’s efforts to be born even if your inner voice doesn’t like the experience. Using Directed Breathing permits us to use our willpower, determination and choice at every moment of birth. In fact, as contractions get more painful, we are more likely to use our Directed Breathing skills more deeply. It makes common sense and becomes our default behaviour. Your partner can model the best breathing type and work with you at every phase of each contraction.
Birth preparation and childbirth skills will become the common approach to pregnancy in time because they work in all births. Directed Breathing skills can also be learned when you are planning a cesarean and used during delivery and recovery.
We will all breathe. Intentionally using your Directed Breathing skills will give you a sense of control of the experience as well as working with your baby’s efforts.
If you want to know more about Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation, Kate’s Cat, Hip Lift and Sacral Manoeuvre then visit http://www.birthingbetter.com.
Learn more about The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better®, the only childbirth preparation course that focuses entirely on birth skills for mothers and fathers for ALL births.
Wintergreen is a Trustee to Common Knowledge Trust http://www.commonknowledgetrust.com which produces The Pink Kit. She is a childbirth communicator and communicates on the societal benefits of growing a skilled birthing population. |
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All pregnant women will give birth - one way or another
You are never pregnant forever and aren’t you glad of that.
The operative part of the title is actually ‘one way or another.’ You are unique; your life is full of your life and the choices about birth, centres around your life. No one is the same. Everyone is different, but we have much more in common than we do differences.
There are only two ways to give birth: surgical delivery (Cesarean) and out from the birth canal (the historic way). Unfortunately some pregnancies do end with a miscarriage.
Whichever way you give birth, your body is preparing for birth from 24 weeks onward. It makes common sense that we prepare our pregnant body for birth and learn good birthing skills. There are two reasons. Firstly, you can totally enjoy preparing for birth. It doesn’t happen frequently and it’s such a special time. Enjoy, enjoy and enjoy. This also brings you closer to your baby and partner and brings your partner closer to your pregnancy.
Secondly, birth is such an important and big event in Life that you really should be working with your baby’s efforts during the birth whether it’s the new or historic way.
Birth is full of excitement. Birth is a process for both the woman and the baby. At first, the woman provides a space for the baby to grow and then the baby is working to come out of the woman’s body and that body is responding to the baby’s work.
This is a wonderful time to use birth skills such as Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation. When these skills are learned by you and your partner, you work together as a family, which is about to become a larger family. Enjoy the time together. You can use your birth skills and coaching skills side by side, at every moment of each contraction or during the surgery and recovery, if you have a cesarean delivery.
By using your birth skills you get to impress in your memory what you have done for yourself in whatever kind of birth you have. The birth memories you create have less to do with what happens to you than what you did for yourself. We can embrace what we share as human beings, which is great. This means we can appreciate our uniqueness and yet feel connected to the past and future longevity of our species.
When you use your birth skills you will increase the likelihood of a positive birth experience. You’ll feel competent, capable and confident about your role in the birth of your baby. That’s a wonderful feeling no one can take away from you.
If you want to know more about Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation, Kate’s Cat, Hip Lift and Sacral Manoeuvre then visit http://www.birthingbetter.com.
Learn more about The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better®, the only childbirth preparation course that focuses entirely on birth skills for mothers and fathers for ALL births.
Wintergreen is a Trustee to Common Knowledge Trust http://www.commonknowledgetrust.com which produces The Pink Kit. She is a childbirth communicator and communicates on the societal benefits of growing a skilled birthing population. |
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There is no reasonable reason why not to learn how-to-birth skills, during pregnancy
Political debates control the conversation setting up opposition as to what is the best birth: natural versus medical, Doctor versus Midwife and home versus hospital. Each aspect is then broken down into more minor yet persistent debates such as constant foetal monitoring as standard practice or cesarean delivery for all breeches and twins. The political debate continues.
There's an imbalance in childbirth. For years the issues around childbirth have been put into political debates, things have changed, yet somehow stayed the same.
There could be a social, rather than political debate that has not come to the forefront. Debates could be much less about where a woman births or who birth provider is and more about what expectant parents need to do for themselves regardless of where or with whom they give birth.
Is there any good reason why expectant families shouldn’t have birth and coaching skills? Pregnancy is the only time to learn these task-appropriate skills. Yet, no one is even suggesting that should happen.
We give more emphasis on a social expectation that if you want a drivers’ license, you learn how to drive. We don’t accept any reasonable reason why not such as: ‘I’m working up to the day of my driver’s test’, or ‘I don’t have time’.
Unfortunately, for the past 40 years, women have become de-skilled based on a truth that pregnancy and birth are normal events in a woman’s life. However, connected to that truth is an accurate assumption which says because birth is natural therefore you don’t need skills. Being hungry is natural but we value people who know how-to cook. These are learned skills appropriate for the natural, physiological feeling of hunger and need to eat.
Unfortunately there is also a belief that other animals don’t need to be taught how to birth therefore humans don’t. This is a wild supposition that does not factor in what makes us different from other mammals, our neo-cortex.
The neo-cortex is the very special part of the brain humans share with other primates, whales and dolphins. We also share the limbic system of our brain with other mammals such as dogs and cats and all of us share the brain stem with any animal (no matter how primitive) that has a brain.
It’s our neo-cortex that gives humans the ability to create skills and more skills. Take a look at the great diversity of cultures and all the different skills learned by other human beings.
In fact, humans love to be skilled; we thrive on feeling competent to do the task with the appropriate skills. And we are all human beings regardless of all factors from personal lifestyles to cultural diversity; from opinions about birth to health factors; to availability of modern maternity care or droughts, wars and tsunamis.
However, along with all the assumptive beliefs in childbirth today, there is also a truth wrapped up with another inaccurate conclusion. The truth states there is no way to know what our birth will be like. The inaccurate assumption is that there is nothing we can do.
The future is always unknown, but it unfolds. Birth unfolds and it happens to every single pregnant woman in the world without fail, one way or the other.
Birth is an action word and the actions any birthing woman can take come from the skills she learns. Because all women are human beings and all men have essentially the same body this means there can be a set of shared, common knowledge skills.
Regardless of where or with whom a woman gives birth, she has to breathe and her body will be in some position. Skills such as: Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation, Kate’s Cat, Hip Lift and Sacral Manoeuvre are skills any woman can learn and then use, with the necessary care, assessments, monitoring and procedures that you do.
Whether a woman births alone in the bush, taxi or home she should prepare her pregnant body for birth, learn birth skills and use them to work with her baby’s efforts to be born. Her husband, partner, friend or relative should learn the same set of skills to help her go through this monumental task.
If the birth is going to be a cesarean delivery, pregnancy is still leading to the birth and families can enjoy taking time to prepare, learn the skills and use them during the surgery and recovery. Birth is always an action.
There is no reasonable reason why pregnancy and learning birth and coaching skills should continue to remain disconnected. We do a disservice to all, by just letting this amazing experience happen to us rather than know how to. Empowerment can come from even small accomplishments.
If you want to know more about Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation, Kate’s Cat, Hip Lift and Sacral Manoeuvre then visit http://www.birthingbetter.com.
Learn more about The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better®, the only childbirth preparation course that focuses entirely on birth skills for mothers and fathers for ALL births.
Wintergreen is a Trustee to Common Knowledge Trust http://www.commonknowledgetrust.com which produces The Pink Kit. She is a childbirth communicator and communicates on the societal benefits of growing a skilled birthing population. |
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Wonderful hospital births can happen every time
Political debates control the conversation setting up opposition as to what is the best birth: natural versus medical, Doctor versus Midwife and home versus hospital. Each aspect is then broken down into more minor yet persistent debates such as constant foetal monitoring as standard practice or cesarean delivery for all breeches and twins. The political debate continues.
There's an imbalance in childbirth. Women can often feel defensive about their choices or lack of. Birth providers claim to know what is safe or dangerous. And fathers can still pretty much in the dark ages of being involved without really knowing what to do, not a good path toward a positive experience.
Families are left in a swirl of everyone’s opinion with Birth Plans the only defense or sense of control left to them. On the other hand, many women feel totally comfortable with what their Doctor says. There are suggestions that if a birth takes place in a hospital then it can never be good. Other claims insist that births in hospitals are the safest and anything else almost verges on the criminal.
Debates could be much less about the where a woman births or who the birth provider is and more about what expectant parents need to do for themselves regardless of where or with whom they give birth.
Women can do a lot for themselves that increases and creates a positive birth experience, particularly hospital births. Pregnancy is an appropriate time to prepare for birth and learn birth skills, when a woman gives birth in hospital she can use the skills learned during pregnancy to enhance the birthing experience.
In hospital there will be medical assessments, monitoring and procedures. As long as a woman is conscious, she’ll still breathe, so good breathing skills such as Directed Breathing can be very useful. Obstetricians, staff and Midwives absolutely love to see women cope and manage labour pains. Or if a cesarean delivery is essential, your birth professional will appreciate your using some relaxed breathing techniques during surgery.
That’s also true for our birthing body. We can consciously use relaxation skills to soften inside our body, this can reduce birth pains during labour. In a cesarean delivery, this helps us feel more involved in the birth of our baby. Even women who need or desire a cesarean can feel very disconnected during the whole process. By using birth skills, you will participate in the birth process at a deeper level, this can leave positive memories.
Consciously using skills are the actions you can take to work with your baby’s efforts to be born. This is what being involved with birth means. Birth is an action word. It’s like a performance or event with the woman doing the performance.
Giving birth in hospital can be as full of birth skills as birthing anywhere, women just need to know what skills to use and those are best learned during pregnancy. This is true for all pregnant women.
Fathers or partners are now expected to help during labour and birth. When men step into hospital it’s very easy for them to feel entirely out of their depth. But no obstetrician will ever stop a Dad from breathing with his partner or helping her to relax. Fathers have a job to do, they can learn coaching skills during pregnancy and know what their job should be.
No matter what people think, giving birth in a hospital can certainly be a positive experience because there is so much expectant parents can do for themselves in whatever type of birth occurs.
If you believe a hospital is the safest place to give birth then do your best to make the birth even safer and easier through birth preparation that includes learning birth and coaching skills. If you believe hospital is your only option but you’re not happy, then it’s more important that you use your own birth skills to work your way through birth one breath cycle at a time. If you believe hospitals are the worst place in the world, then using skills can keep you feeling in control of your own birth experience.
The birth you have is up to you when you think outside the box and realise that no one has put birth and coaching skills into the equation. Therefore, people are arguing and debating external factors and not what we can all do for ourselves.
If you want to know more about Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation, Kate’s Cat, Hip Lift and Sacral Manoeuvre then visit http://www.birthingbetter.com.
Learn more about The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better®, the only childbirth preparation course that focuses entirely on birth skills for mothers and fathers for ALL births.
Wintergreen is a Trustee to Common Knowledge Trust http://www.commonknowledgetrust.com which produces The Pink Kit. She is a childbirth communicator and communicates on the societal benefits of growing a skilled birthing population. |
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Choosing a home birth may not guarantee you’ll have a home birth
Most people assume that choosing to have a home birth is all you need to do. Birth Plans are very much like a wish list or a menu choice. After all, we are living in a world where we often feel we know our rights to choose, we want it now, or others can be put to blame if we fail or we feel we are falling victim to the medical community.
The last thing you want to hear is that your chosen home birth might not be the birth you wanted or hoped for, and you may even end up transferring to that dreaded hospital. It’s most politically incorrect to talk about the lack of success of home births or even how to make home birth success more likely.
Home births are assumed to be the perfect, ideal and best birth. For those families where a home birth has been absolutely ideal, they have extreme difficulty in imagining the huge sense of failure experienced by many families who had hoped for a home birth and a great birth.
Birth is much more than a choice. There is no way you can know what your birth will be like. What happens at all births is much more connected to how the woman takes the journey of this extraordinary activity. In fact, birth is less a choice then an activity. And that activity is often connected to the hard work of coping with the naturally occurring pain of labour.
But then it also seems to be politically incorrect to even talk about birth pain. Now, the words rush, wave, intensity etc are the preferred words. However, pain it is, unless you are one of the very fortunate few who actually experience little or no pain. But home births can be as painful as those in hospital. A great deal of the woman’s job is to cope or manage the pain, rather than get lost and feel out of control or overwhelmed.
Because you are choosing a home birth you have a much greater responsibility in a political climate that may not support your choice. If you live in a country that does support your choice then you still have a higher responsibility to safely birth at home, so that home births remain a viable option for other families.
The responsibility has to do with preparing our pregnant body for birth so this very large object (our baby) can come out easily and safely. Since birth is an activity, preparing our pregnant body for this activity is very real. Since there’s no way to know what your birth will be like, you need to prepare your body to stay open, mobile and relaxed.
If you want to know more about Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation, Kate’s Cat, Hip Lift and Sacral Manoeuvre then visit http://www.birthingbetter.com.
Learn more about The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better®, the only childbirth preparation course that focuses entirely on birth skills for mothers and fathers for ALL births.
Wintergreen is a Trustee to Common Knowledge Trust http://www.commonknowledgetrust.com which produces The Pink Kit. She is a childbirth communicator and communicates on the societal benefits of growing a skilled birthing population. |
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