Usenet Writings

Breathing in Labor

©1994 Beth Weiss, Posted to misc.kids Usenet newsgroup, November 17, 1994

Are they really helpful?

I have to admit that I wasn't so sure about it during classes, either.  But during labor, I found the breathing to be very helpful in allowing me to concentrate on something other than the pain.

I thought of the breathing as my coping mechanism with the discomfort/pain of a contraction.  It accomplished a couple of things for me.

• practice in maintaining the breathing for a specified period of time, that is, through an entire contraction, and then, through multiple contractions some minutes apart

• different breathing techniques.  There are several different types of breathing exercises that women might find helpful in labor.  By practicing them in advance, you can determine which techniques are most useful to you.  In some cases, certain times of breathing don't work for a woman--they might be uncomfortable or cause hyperventilation--it's better to discover that prior to labor.

• For example, in the childbirth classes I've taken and assisted in, abdominal breathing, shallow chest breathing, deep chest breathing, chest breathing with numbers, and pushing breathing are all shown.

• Learning how to breathe effectively.   If you are trying to use shallow chest breathing and breathe too fast, you run the risk of hyperventilating.  By practicing in class, the instructor can observe and then give helpful hints about slowing down so that you learn the most effective speed

• Ideas.  I never would have thought of using chest breathing with numbers, and even thought it was dumb when we practiced it in class, but it was the method I used to cope with most of my difficult contractions.**

• You learn about cleansing breaths.  I thought they sounded silly--but you know what?  They really helped mark the beginning and end of a contraction for me, and now I swear by them!

For early labor, a deep abdominal breath might be a good coping method.  For later, more painful contractions, a more distracting method of breathing that requires concentration might be a better coping method.   I don't know if there's so much to "practice" but there's definitely something to learn.

I would strongly advice any woman who is considering trying to have a drug-free labor to learn as much as possible about breathing techniques.  I'd probably also recommend them to women who are planning drugs :-), since I use abdominal breathing as a distraction when getting a shot or other painful procedure (such as a catheter).

I didn't practice as much as I probably should have, but since our childbirth educator acted as our doula during labor, she was able to remind me of everything I'd forgotten!!  

I know that others recommend waiting until labor to learn coping techniques, but that assumes that you'll have someone with you who will be able and willing to teach you.  Unless you've hired your own labor support person, I wouldn't recommend this approach, since there's no telling if the nurse you get will be able and/or willing to give you private breathing lessons.

** For those who aren't familiar with chest breathing with numbers, it works like this.  At the start of each contraction, I took a cleansing breath.  Then I picked two numbers (say 2 and 3), I'd take 2 chest breaths, and then 3 breaths with a sound ("hiss" or "pooh") on the out-breath, and then repeat until the contraction was over, when I took another cleansing breath.

There are lots of variations on this.  One is for the coach to pick the numbers at the start of each contraction, and either tell the woman verbally or to signal with the fingers.  The numbers can vary by contraction, or they can remain constant throughout the labor.  A common method is to have the # of regular chest breaths vary, but always do exactly one sound breath. 

I found it most distracting to make up pairs of numbers, and use a
different pair with each contraction.  Since I wasn't talking much at that point, I didn't tell the doula what numbers I was using--she just had to figure it out and go along--and she did a great job. 

You'll notice I said "distracting"--that's what it was--and that's what I needed.  I needed my breathing to help me remain calm throughout the contraction so that I didn't give in to the pain. 

I feel very good about the breathing techniques I used during labor, and I know they were very useful to me.