Most moms-to-be don't know that the way they breathe in labor itself affects their body, their baby and thus their labor (we show you how and why in our Mini Course below).

When your breathing is relaxed (deep), your body is able to relax too. As a result, it is easier for the body to produce labor hormones to keep labor going (or to start labor in the first place), as well as to produce endorphins for the pain. Both supports a smooth progress of labor.

When your breathing (and thus your body) is not relaxed, contractions are going to feel even more painful. This will make you change your breathing even more to the worse, and then it quickly becomes a vicious circle.

Tense breathing and the higher level of pain can affect the progress of labor. This can either show in a slowing of labor, less effective contractions or a general resistance against cervical dilation.

Tense breathing will also make you change your posture and (labor) position. "Pain-based" positions and postures often lead to a misalignment of your baby's body and your pelvis. In other words, you no longer support baby's descent in your pelvis.

Moving through your pelvis is quite a hurdle for the baby which is why it is important to support your baby do so. But if you adopt random postures and positions because you are unable to cope with the pain, it can slow down baby's descent in your pelvis.

Since tense breathing will bring in less oxygen in your body, it can also affect baby's oxygen levels. And a lack of oxygen is exactly what often makes baby's heart rate drop.

Your breathing is the key to avoid such situations! In our Mini Birthing Course below, we show you why and how to do that.

At some point during your delivery, you will have to squeeze your baby through your pelvic floor.
The problem is: the pelvic floor consists of several layers of thick muscle tissue. So, there is gonna be a lot of resistance from your pelvic floor which makes it difficult for your baby to move through it.

But because there is a link between your jaw, your diaphragm and your pelvic floor, it is possible to have an effect on how flexible your pelvic floor is when your baby moves through it. And obviously, if you keep your pelvic floor flexible, your baby can squeeze through it much more easily.
And you would do that by combining breathing techniques with vocal techniques. We show you a vocal breathing technique in our Mini Birthing Couse below!

We will introduce two very simple but highly effective breathing techniques for your labor! While both techniques can be a BIG help during labor, the second technique can be particularly powerful because it is a combination of a breathing technique and a vocal technique.

We use a measurement device in order to compare both breathing techniques – that we introduce you to – with tense breathing. Moreover, we show you how each breathing technique affects your body, your baby and your labor. Plus, we also show you what happens if you don’t care about your breathing at all.

… reduce the level of stress hormones in your body (remember: stress hormones can interfere with labor hormones)
… help your body produce more labor hormones
… keep labor going (which is particularly relevant if you have plans to have an epidural!)
… activate your body’s own pain management system
… support your baby’s descent in your pelvis and birth canal
… increase the oxygen supply to your baby during a contraction (highly relevant in case baby’s heart rate drops)

… and much more!

Applying the right breathing technique during labor is key! However, it is only "one piece of the puzzle". A smooth delivery requires the interplay of many different factors. In the second part of our free Mini Birthing Course, we explain what those factors are and how you can prepare for them.

At the end of our Mini Birthing Course, we give you a handout about our breathing techniques to download! It does not only contain everything that we cover in our course. It also includes additional highly relevant information, such as:
– the best timing to apply breathing techniques during a contraction
– the effect of your breathing on your pelvic floor (highly relevant for the pushing phase!!)
– at what breathing rate the oxygen supply to your baby is optimal

– and much more!

We deliver this free Mini Birthing Course to you via an online webinar. This is an online presentation that will take about 35 minutes! You can watch it on any device you like. However, for the best experience, we recommend watching it either on a computer, laptop or tablet. And we also recommend watching it during a time of the day when you are not being disturbed!