if you could just devote five minutes a day to this practice this preparation to prepare
your body for childbirth you are going to be so ahead of the game when labor starts
now if we haven't met in real life my name is alice turner i am a doula
certified childbirth educator and on my channel i like to make videos about birth to help you have a
positive birth experience and one of the questions that i get a lot and something that i love to talk
about is how to prepare how do you prepare your body for birth you might have noticed that i'm
in my workout gear today but that does not mean that i'm going to go through exercises exercise
in pregnancy it definitely has its benefits but that's not what i'm talking about today
today i'm talking about breathing exercises that's right so these are exercises that basically
you can practice anywhere and you can practice in as little as five minutes a day throughout your
pregnancy and it will make such a huge difference when it comes to labor so what i want to do is
teach these breathing exercises using an app that is free and that i find makes it super simple so
let me introduce you to the breathe plus app now the breathe plus app
is both free and easy to use but i want to walk you through the process that i think
will help you get to a point that you are getting those nice long breaths in so let me show you what
it looks like to have a nice long controlled breath and this is the type of breath that
works so well when contractions are strong when you need to cope with them and really any point
in labor from the beginning all the way through the end and even if you have a cesarean birth
and not a vaginal birth you can still use these breathing exercises so really the ideal breath
that i think is helpful is a nice controlled and long breath in and a nice long breath out
the breath in being a little bit shorter having a nice long exhale so let me show you a couple
and then we'll look at the breathe plus app together and i will give you a strategy so
that you can get there if you're not there yet here we go so a nice deep breath in
and out
let me do it again and i do it with hand motions because those are the hand motions
that i think partners can use to help support this breath so a nice breath in
a pause at the top and a breath out here we go again nice breath in
okay so it is quite an extensive breath out it doesn't have to be that exact amount of time
but there's such a benefit to learn how to do that deep breath in and that long exhale
so with the breathe app it's pretty simple up top is where you can change the settings for your
breath in the time that you hold and the breath out and the hold before you take another breath in
so i think that this is a good start the three counts to the breath in the two hold at the top
and then the five out and two and i have mine set up for piano sounds the free version i think does
not give you all the option for sounds and color but uh this is the paid version which is very
affordable and i think i find it worth the the price so you press start and you'll watch and see
that there's a visual that goes with the breath in the hold
and the breath out
so then right here is where you can change the time so if you want to start out with less time
like say maybe three minutes you just want to do three minutes a day set this up press start at
the bottom you'll see the session length and the breath cycles how many that you've done
and if at any time these settings either seem too easy or too hard you can just change it
so maybe you want to increase your end breath maybe you want to increase your out
and try that for a little bit my suggestion is that you work towards getting a five
breath in and an eight count breath out so what that looks like is a nice inhale
there we go so let me know in the comments if you are up to the task of practicing five
minutes a day with your breath whether you use the breathe app or not it doesn't matter but
if you're up for practicing five minutes a day let me know in the comments and i am going to give you
some encouragement to keep going now just like any time that you set a goal for yourself of
practicing every day if you skip a day or miss a day don't beat yourself up on this no way just
get some practice in you know many days just think about it how you can integrate it into
your schedule maybe you do it after you brush your teeth in the morning maybe you do it right
before you get out of bed or right before you go to bed try to find a way that you can sneak it
into your normal schedule so it doesn't feel like such a chore and again if you miss a day it's okay
just getting some practice in is going to make a huge difference
and i want that for you i want you to have this tool ready to go for when labor contractions start
now if you are looking for more information about preparing for labor and birth i have
two videos that i recommend right here check those out thanks guys see you next time bye
you