A Breathing Technique For Labor and for Life: Relaxed Abdominal Breathing

How To Breathe Deeply:

· Breathe in through your nose and out through your nose for the most relaxed, meditative breathing. In more active situations, like labor, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. (If your nose is congested, as is common during pregnancy because of the effects of estrogen, then you may find it more comfortable to breathe in through your mouth.)

· When you inhale, allow your belly to expand first, then your chest.

· When you exhale, the chest relaxes first, then the belly.

· It may help to envision the breath spiraling inward, as the abdomen expands, then spiraling outward.

Slow Deep Breathing in Labor

 Some important factors about breathing can influence a woman’s experience of labor: Shallow, chest breathing tends to increase anxiety, which tends to increase pain. It also limits the oxygen supply to bodily tissues, which again can increase the pain experienced during labor. Deep, abdominal breathing can increase relaxation and provide a sense of well-being. It also ensures adequate oxygen supply to uterine muscles, and to the baby. 

Early pregnancy is a perfect time to start changing your breathing habits. This can be done through formal means, by taking classes that include attention to the breath, such as yoga, qigong / tai chi, and meditation classes, or by working with audiotapes which focus on healthy breathing. It can also be incorporated into your daily routines, just through developing some new habits: for example, focusing on healthy breathing while driving, or while working or reading, or while soaking in the bathtub at the end of a day. Once you have unlearned dysfunctional habits, and practiced breathing techniques, your regular breathing habits will change naturally. The more you re-train your body to abdominal breathing during pregnancy, the easier it will be to employ it during labor as a relaxation and pain-reducing method.

Slow Deep Breathing for Life in General

Much of the information below is taken from Kenneth S. Cohen’s The Way of Qigong: The Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing, and also can be heard on his audiocassette Healthy Breathing.

The Importance of Abdominal Breathing

Many traditional cultures, including China, India, and Japan, have emphasized the importance of the breath in physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Modern research has verified many positive aspects of relaxed abdominal breathing, and has also verified some of the harmful effects of the more rapid chest breathing common in our high-stress society. Many experts would argue that the average American’s health and well-being could be improved through a change in their breathing patterns to abdominal breathing. This involves taking in slow, deep breaths, allowing the abdomen (belly) to expand outward. (This allows the diaphragm muscle to contract and move downwards, pushing the abdomen out. This significantly increases the volume of the lungs, creating a partial vacuum and sucking air in.) Then breathing out, allowing the belly to contract; the diaphragm relaxes upward, the abdomen releases inward, pushing air out. The chest should be relaxed, not tense. During quiet, resting times, most of the movement is in the abdomen. During more active periods, the abdomen will expand first, then the chest will also visibly expand and contract.

Breathing rate: A relaxed adult in a quiet environment should breathe at about 5 breaths per minute. However, the average adult in America has a resting respiratory rate of 16 breaths per minute!

Practice breathing slowly at a rate of 5-7 breaths per minute. Do not hold your breath, air exchange is continuous and relaxed. Take 5-6 seconds to inhale, and the same amount of time to exhale.

Problems with Breathing Quickly and Benefits of Breathing Slowly: Rapid Expansion and contraction of the chest cavity actually causes oxygen to bind too tightly to the hemoglobin molecules, so less oxygen is released to the cells, which means less energy and an impaired ability to carry out normal bodily processes. It also causes a constriction in the blood vessels, further preventing the oxygen from reaching its target. The respiratory rate will increase further, just to keep the same amount of oxygen flowing to the cells.

Slow, abdominal breathing causes even the tiniest blood vessels, the capillaries, to relax and gently dilate with a greater flow of blood, oxygen, and energy.

Problems with Chest Breathing and Benefits of Abdominal Breathing: Chest breathing may appear full and deep because of the visible movement of the chest; however, it does not allow as much air into the lungs as abdominal breathing does.

Abdominal breathing allows the diaphragm to drop, which opens the lower lobes of the lungs, where most of the oxygen exchange takes place. Abdominal breathing causes muscles to relax, improves circulation, and increases oxygen delivery. Many people also find that when the breath is relaxed, they are more focused on the present and can find healthier ways of coping with personal problems.

Pain and Breathing: If the diaphragm is frozen with tension, then the chest and ribcage must move instead. This is a common symptom in people experiencing chronic pain, and some patients experience pain relief when taught abdominal breathing. There may be a direct correlation between free movement of the diaphragm and alleviation of pain.

Hyperventilation Syndrome: This involves chronic rapid breathing, focused on the chest, with little abdominal movement, irregular or interrupted breathing. May involve just a rising and falling of the sternum with little lateral expansion of the chest.

Hyperventilation is a common symptom in the seven major psychosomatic diseases: asthma, hypertension, ulcers, rheumatoid arthritis, colitis, hyperthyroidism, and neurodermatitis. It is also seen in migraine, chronic pain of any origin, seizure disorders and heart disease. Improper breathing does not necessarily cause these diseases, but it can be a precipitating factor, and can intensify or prolong pain and disease symptoms. The decreased oxygen supply created by rapid chest breathing can contribute to anxiety, strokes, more frequent epileptic attacks, high blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmia, and angina. Proper abdominal breathing can cure or alleviate many of these conditions. There is clinical evidence that one can learn to abort, control, and possibly cure migraines, and reduce cardiovascular risk factors, such as high blood pressure.

Note: In the case of a few diseases that create metabolic acidosis, such as hypoglycemia, diabetes, and kidney failure, chest breathing and a quicker respiratory rate may actually be necessary to maintain the correct acid-base balance.

Compiled by Janelle Durham, 2002.

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