Hi! In today's video I'm going to be teaching you a second hypnobirthing breathing technique.
This breathing technique is called down breathing and you can use it during the second stage of
labour as you're giving birth to your baby. My name's Anja and I'm a hypnobirthing practitioner.
On my Youtube channel you'll find antenatal education and birth preparation videos, as well
as a series of pregnancy relaxation audios. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button and
click the bell icon so you don't miss any of my upcoming videos, there's new ones every single
week! Let me teach you how to do down breathing now. When you experience a contraction, as your
baby is coming down your birth canal and being born, you breathe in deeply through your nose
then you do a purposeful forceful exhalation through your mouth. So that's in through your nose
out through your mouth. You keep repeating that breathing cycle over and over again
until each of your contractions finishes then return to breathing normally in between.
The reason this breathing technique is so effective is because it stops you from
pushing from the upper part of your body. In labour, a lot of women will do what's called 'purple face pushing'. They'll get all tense in their upper body and they'll push like this...
but you don't want to be doing that in labour because it actually restricts the space
in your abdomen and in your birth canal and can make giving birth more uncomfortable and more
challenging. What you want to be doing is be guided by your body's instinctive urge to bear down and
push and doing that breathing technique and doing that forceful exhalation of breath like this...
actually helps to guide your baby down the birth canal more smoothly and comfortably.
In a moment, I'm going to guide you through five lots of the down breathing technique.
When I say "breathe in", you'll breathe in deeply through your nose
and when I say "breathe out", you'll do a purposeful, forceful exhalation through your mouth.
Don't worry if my pace is too slow or too quick for you. We're just practicing it so
that you get the hang of it. When you do it at home, by yourself or with your birth partner,
you'll find your own comfortable pace and rhythm. Just empty your lungs for me please
and breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth
in, out
in,
out
in, out
Well done! Now I'm going to teach you how your birth partner can support you with
this breathing technique during pregnancy and childbirth. Your partner can help you with your
down breathing by saying visualization and mantra words to you as you exhale.
As you breathe out your partner can help you visualize something going down and this is because,
during the second stage of labour, your baby is coming down your birth canal and being pushed
down by the muscles of your uterus. Maybe your partner could say the word "rain" to you
and you can visualize raindrops falling down to the ground.
Maybe they could say the word "snowflakes" and you can visualize snowflakes falling
down to the ground. Perhaps you prefer a more powerful visual and you'd like
your partner to say the word "waterfall" so when they say that you could visualize a
powerful waterfall gushing down to a pool below. Or, maybe, you'd like to hear the
word "baby" and you can simply visualize your baby coming down your birth canal.
Also, as you breathe out, your partner can say a positive mantra word to you like "calm", " relax",
"release", "peace", "serenity", "let go" or "surrender". When the visualization and mantra word
are put together, as you breathe out, your partner could say a number of different variations to you
for example "raindrops relax" or "snowflakes calm" or maybe "waterfall surrender" or "baby release".
You choose what you prefer and please let your partner know what you want them to say to you
as you exhale during your down breathing. Thank you so much for watching this video today. I hope
you found the information useful. Make sure that you're practicing your down breathing technique
every single day. Five lots in the morning, five lots in the afternoon and five lots in the evening.
If you're practicing it with your birth partner you can obviously use the visualization and
the mantra word. If you're practicing it by yourself, you're just focusing on breathing
in through your nose and then doing that forceful breath out through your mouth. If you've got any
questions about this breathing technique please let me know by leaving me a comment.
Do share this video with a pregnant friend of yours if you think it can help them
and if you're interested in finding out about my hypnobirthing classes and courses
just click the links in the video description below. Take care and see you again soon, bye :)