Last week I put together a daily breathing exercise for a client that is now 37 weeks pregnant - it’s all getting real so more than ever breathing can support her to stay calm and connected to her body.
The practice will be so appreciated when she feels the waves of surges coming and when she knows that it is time to push her baby.
If you want to give it a go:
1. Sit comfortably and breathe normally and effortlessly until you feel you’ve landed in yourself.
2. Start by equalising the breathing. In for 4 through the nose, out for 4 through the nose (you can do this up to 7:7 if it feels comfortable to you). If you use a 4:4 ration you can do 10 to 15 cycles.
3. Elongate the out breathing. In for 4 through the nose, out for 7 through the mouth. This is sometimes called the up-breathing technique, but honestly it is just a wonderful calming breathing that can support you in any moment of stress or anxiety as well. You can use this breathing pattern in labour all the way until the pushing stage when you have contractions (or anytime you want to re-centre yourself). In this practice you can do 6 to 10 cycles.
4. Try setting an alarm for 1 min (generally how long a contraction would last) to feel how the pushing breathing can support you in engaging your core appropriately without having to do any extra effort. Just using your breathe to get your core supporting your uterus when the time comes.
5. Make sure to give yourself some rest after this, stay put and breathe normally until you feel relaxed and ready to re-engage with your normal activities.
It’s nice to have your eyes closed before and after the practice and even throughout if that works for you 👀
Some tips for you not to get lost in the counting:
☝🏼tap your fingertips in one hand to count the numbers and use the other hand to keep count of the cycles
💆🏻♀️ get your birth partner to do the counting for you out loud and let you know when to move on to the next breathing technique - this will be a great practice for them too, to better support you in labour.
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