Giving birth is no easy pie that can be ruled out easily. There are many tips that endeavor natural birth, breathing baby out is one of them. Mothers have vividly praised the breathing baby out technique & how it has facilitated their natural birth process.
It has happened with many moms & their birth story is likely breathing baby out without pushing, it seems unreal, right? I have seen it personally, my friend, Lata, barely 40 kgs(minus baby weight) gave birth to a beautiful boy without pushing & just breathing it out.
We both were in the same hospital with the same due date, while she had a natural birth without any delay, I went for Episiotomy.
Breathing baby out asks for a relaxed & calm mind. Now, I know it can get hard to relax during the time period but this post will help you attain the hurdle.
Prior to the due date and otherwise live a happy, Bindass life. Let go of the worries and relax your body, reconnect yourself with nature to internally heal your body & mind.
How to give a natural birth without stressing? I’ll tell you- you’ve known about hypnobirthing and many other methods of coping with labor pain, contractions, and the birth process. You might also have come across the phrase breathing baby out without pushing.
What exactly does breathing baby out mean?“
Breathing baby out doesn’t mean that you don’t push at all during labor! Of course, your body will push on instincts, the main resolute of breathing baby out is to distract your attention from the pain to the breathing pattern and to let your body lead the birth process.
When a mother is in a labor room and is told to push, her automatic reaction is almost to:
- Hold breath while pushing
- Tense upper body, as a result, she can be holding her breath
- The tense vaginal sphincter (the type of muscles surrounding and serving to guard an opening at the vaginal) helps to control urination-and helps to hold a deep breath and tense upper body.
Instead of blocking breathing and cutting out the oxygen. Breathe while pushing, synchronize both of them together. Breathing while pushing will release the tension and will initiate better oxygen & blood flow in the body.
How To breathe the baby out:-
The second story is about my mother. She had her labor pain while playing Holi (Indian festival of colors). Isn’t it interesting? All her friends were shocked by the birth process. She took only a few minutes to give birth without pushing.
It is an all-natural birth process to allow your body to lead without constricting the oxygen & blood flow. There are also cases where doctors conducted a natural birth series on a paralyzed woman.
How to do it? It’s quite simple.
- Synchronize your heart beats with your breathing pattern and don’t distract away.
- Follow a breathing pattern. You can go with a slow breathing pattern when the contractions start and breathe fast when contractions intensify.
- Also, decide for a count limit. You can go with a pattern like, A deep breath-5 short breathes and then again a deep breath or whatever lines up with your pushing.
- Don’t push until your body instincts you to push and while you are at it, don’t stop breathing. Instead, synchronize it with your pushing pattern.
Just keep calm, don’t fear, follow your body cues. Here are some advantages of breathing the baby out, take a look.
Advantages of Breathing Baby out:
During pregnancy, your uterus provides a safe space for the baby’s development and growth. Labor pain is the function of the uterus that helps you to push your breathing baby out.
The ultimate goal is to allow your uterine muscles to work during labor, and keep the rest of your body not involved in the birth process. Amazingly, your uterus works on the first step to an empowering birth process experience.
- Your body goes in a relaxation phase while breathing baby out.
- It helps you cope up with labor pain more efficiently and prepares your body better for the contractions.
- When you synchronize your breathing with contractions, your body relaxes a bit at every blow you let go of
- Breathing patterns help you distract away from the pain as it sets your concentration to the breathing pattern instead of the pain.
Breathing Baby Out Instead of Pushing – 7 Easy Steps!
1. Allow your perineal tissue to stretch
When you force your body beyond its limits, you can end up with severe vaginal tears. When your body is composed and applies its natural force, breathing baby out becomes gentle & slow.
A breathing pattern allows your body to release the tension & stress, the release in stress allows your body to stretch naturally on instincts.
Keep your perineum warm by placing a warm cloth during labor, it may help considerably. You must have a perineal massage at home that saves you from possible vaginal stitches.
You can either have massaging sessions at home throughout your pregnancy or add a massage session during contractions in your birth plan. Your care provider should place two fingers of a lubricated gloved inside your vagina and move them from side to side, exerting gently, by pressing downward.
Before this process, your caretaker must educate you about perineal massage at home. STRETCH OIL can help you loosen up when you feel tight.
Do you think it’s easy for a baby?
How will your baby feel when it is slowly sliding through a dark wet and small tunnel. Imagine yourself in such a condition.
Apart from it, sometimes we are forced to thrust through this canal with high intense pressure and constriction.
So, try all your efforts to make an accessible path for your baby to come out safely. If you feel contractions and labor pain, remember, the baby also has a lot of difficulties in sliding through a very narrow canal. Help him in all possible ways to give him a safe birth.
How can you do that? Release the stress, stop constricting your body and let oxygen help your body expand.
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2. Save your energy
Oh Jesus! It’s very exhausting to push for an extended period. Already, you’re in labor and don’t know how long does it last.
One thing you can do is stay calm and focused. It is the strategy for making your labor pain more easily. Stressing & panicking release a high-level of stress hormones that can suck your energy.
Also, pushing unnecessarily also empties your energy. Instead, wait until you are asked to push or until your body gives you the order.
Futile attempts at pushing & unnecessary stressing will lead to long and painful labor. So, the technique for you is to keep calm and focus on the urge to push & breathe throughout. This will help you with what your body wants and keep your pain level under control.
3. Your Recovery after vaginal birth
During labor, your perineum (the area between your vagina and rectum) may be stretched and tear which can hurt a lot. It becomes worse if you get an episiotomy(doctors make a small cut to widen your vagina to help your baby come out safely)
Vaginal delivery recovery can be a difficult task after the baby arrives. But if you’re able to cause less damage by breathing baby out, you can recover very fast and feel like your older self again in a few days.
4. More Oxygen Reaches your Baby
During pregnancy, the baby depends on the mother for nourishment and oxygen. The placenta is the organ that connects the baby by the umbilical cord. (Read more about delayed cord clamping that is for your baby’s health.)
All the necessary nutrition, oxygen, life support from the mother’s blood goes through the placenta to the baby. Traditional pushing encourages you to hold your breath which is not good for your baby. Because baby only breaths when you breathe well.
This can harm you and your baby as breath-holding decreases blood flow & oxygen flow. A better approach is to delay pushing until the woman feels the urge to push. When there are no contractions, allow the pregnant body to rest and prepare for pushing efforts.
But if you want to breathe the baby out without pushing, just follow a steady and slow breaths pattern. Don’t end up gasping for air because you also need proper oxygen as well as your baby.
5. The Hard Part About breathing baby out
Breathing baby out without pushing is not an easy task. It is physically and mentally more challenging to just struggle for a long time. Let your uterus do its work until there is a natural urge to push.
In my first delivery, I remember acutely, I felt downward motion from inside. And that time I gave a strong push, everything was finally over. Make sure to tell your care provider what your body is feeling exactly.
Many mothers find ‘not pushing hard when there is an increase in pressure. They get overwhelmed as the baby descends. They end up pushing as hard as they can. So, it just ends up harshly.
At times like this, breathe. Breathe heavier and don’t dwell in hard pushing.
6. Two Steps Forward And One Step Back
Another thing is, it’s like two steps forward and one step back with every contraction.
Your perineum and vagina have stretchy tissues. But they always not remain in the stretch position, they want to spring back to their normal position as well, like a rubber band.
Think of a rubber band. No matter how hard you stretch it, it’ll get back to its initial position.
When you’re in labor, you may feel that it’s taking longer to deliver a baby. Because the pain makes your body feel everything is working in slow motion. On the other hand, the birth process isn’t a quick process either.
Giving life through your body is not an easy task. It may take its own time. You must wait until your body makes the final urge. Only then, you can accomplish breathing baby out without pushing. The keyword is to resist until you can and have patience.
So, be courageous, give your body its own time and get it over just like your body wants to.
7. How Do I breathe My Baby Out?
The beautiful thing is just laying on your bed and enjoy your favorite movie. Let your body to do all the hard work. Many women are privileged to do so in that way. I’m not joking! One of my best friends is blessed with these qualities.
Some women give births in vehicles and say that it just happened?
It’s all true as babies can take birth themselves. Often, it would happen if mothers implement a few practical steps in doing so.
Extra pointers on breathing baby out without pushing.
1. Wait as long as you can!
Don’t worry let your uterus naturally do most of the hard work for you. Those bear down urges will get stronger and get you closer to seeing your baby soon. The uterus will back in its space after a few months. (Also, know what will happen to our body after baby birth) Get ready for coming tasks after the birth process.
2. Push only when it’s crucial to push
Finally, these urges reach a point where you have to push. This is the point when your body tells you that it’s the best time to give a final push.
3. Relax your jaws
Marie Mongan talks about the direct relation of your pelvic floor to your jaw and mouth muscles. That means if you relax your jaw and face, it will automatically relax your pelvic floor. This act eventually helps to speed up your delivery.
4. Birth Breathing
Let your jaw free and hanging while you’re breathing. Take a deep breath through your nose and release it through your mouth with the sound of “ah”. Don’t blow breath forcibly but let air to empty your lungs itself.
5. Exhale downward while breathing baby out
When you usually exhale your breath downward and out, your lungs and the abdominal cavity compresses. However, when you exhale with the slow sound of ahh, your belly takes the motion downward.
Just hold on your outbreathe for as long as you can. Like this, you are giving some pushes behind your diaphragm to squeeze out every bit of air.
You also make a slight pressure while exhaling, for pushing your baby out in the other direction.
6. Keep patience
This may be easy for mothers who have already gone through the birth process. They always advise that there’s no harm in pushing but only when the urge is too high.
But pushing before the time can make things more difficult until the end of the birth process.
7. Visualize Your Baby Descending while breathing baby out
Calm down, close your eyes, and imagine that your baby is coming into this beautiful world. Keep a mirror so you can see it, by all means, do so.
When the mind is in sync with the body’s action then automatically inner tensions can disappear.
In conclusion
- Wait as long as you can
- Push only when it is impossible not to push
- Calm and relax your jaw and other body muscles
- Birth Breathing with sound “ahh”
- Exhale downward
- Diaphragmatic push
Patience and well practice make you feel that the birth process is a beautiful experience.
I hope these tips may help mothers in their labor and birth process. Write your pregnancy journey in the comment box, which might help the expected mother.
The next phase is postpartum that starts immediately after the birth process. You have to keep your self ready for it. Motherhood is an amazing journey that keeps you busy all the time with tasks of pregnancy, postpartum, parenting & breastfeeding. Till then
Take Care