What is Directed Breathing in childbirth?

Although breathing techniques were a popular way to prepare for childbirth in the 1970s, birth skills have gone out of popularity. The most common and well-known breathing techniques were Lamaze. This was very popular with expectant families particularly in the US at a time when childbirth choices had become more available.

The purpose of breathing techniques is to distract women from the naturally occurring pain of contractions. There are many theories surrounding the use of breathing techniques as a useful tool for self-management of birth pain. Another benefit of learning breathing techniques in giving fathers/partners an active role in coaching birth.

For most of the history of modern maternity medical care women laboured alone either in a ward separated by curtains, a semi-private or private room. By the mid-1960s women demanded the presence of their husband during labour, they didn’t want to be alone and wanted help in coping with the pain of labour. The most natural person to help was the husband. After all he was going to be a father and women rightly believed that men should understand how hard labour was. Many men felt left out of the whole birth arena. Although some cultures excluded fathers historically, there were many cultures where fathers were actively involved.

A man who learned breathing techniques was much more likely to actively help his partner manage contractions. This built the family relationship. Men appreciated the hard work of labour and their admiration of women increased and subsequently bonded more easily with their baby.

However, breathing techniques didn’t always work. The most common reason for this had to do with the intensity of pain. When the pain became very intense in the perception of the woman, often she felt out of control and lost control of the techniques she was taught.

This had a spin off effect for the man. Often men thought that the pain had shifted into a problem of some kind. This was mixed with a belief that the woman knew what she was doing, or that her feeling out of control was a normal part of labour. This often led to confusion. While the woman often wanted her husband to help her, he was often uncertain how to or whether he could or should. Sometimes he just wanted the obstetrician to come in and assist in helping her out of her misery.

Directed Breathing is an entirely different way to use our breathing in labour. We breathe all the time and will continue to breathe in labour whether we groan, scream or are very quiet. Breathing techniques are based on theories about breath, where Directed Breathing is based on what we do as humans when we breathe in different situations or activities.

The one and only contributing factor to a change in a woman’s breath in labour is directly due to the amount of pain she is experiencing. Pain is subjective, however any person who experiences what they perceive as pain, will find their breath changing. Usually one pain response is to increase the rate of our breathing or to begin to make sounds. Groaning, moaning, and hyperventilating are all part of this common response to feelings of pain.

Directed Breathing childbirth skills move us from merely using a technique to understanding how humans breathe when they feel pain and when we are relaxed.

Birth pain is unique. It’s usually not coupled with an injury, sickness or even a problem. It occurs naturally and is connected to the opening of the cervix that is, the closure of our womb. When a baby is ready to be born, the cervix must open. This stretching causes pain during the contractions that are the action of the womb to tug the cervix open.

Learning Directed Breathing skills is vitally important during pregnancy. All humans breathe the same way, so men and women will both understand what relaxed breathing feels like compared to stressed breathing. This means couples can work more closely and men can understand the sounds a woman makes in labour and what it means.

Directed Breathing skills create a focus to work with the baby’s efforts to be born even if your inner voice doesn’t like the experience. Using Directed Breathing permits us to use our willpower, determination and choice at every moment of birth. In fact, as contractions get more painful, we are more likely to use our Directed Breathing skills more deeply. It makes common sense and becomes our default behaviour. Your partner can model the best breathing type and work with you at every phase of each contraction.

Birth preparation and childbirth skills will become the common approach to pregnancy in time because they work in all births. Directed Breathing skills can also be learned when you are planning a cesarean and used during delivery and recovery.

We will all breathe. Intentionally using your Directed Breathing skills will give you a sense of control of the experience as well as working with your baby’s efforts.

If you want to know more about Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation, Kate’s Cat, Hip Lift and Sacral Manoeuvre then visit http://www.birthingbetter.com.

Learn more about The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better®, the only childbirth preparation course that focuses entirely on birth skills for mothers and fathers for ALL births.

Transfer From Birth Centre To Hospital ... Take Your Birth Skills

Transferring from Birth Centre to hospital

Transferring from a Birth Centre is never anticipated or else people wouldn’t plan Birth Centre births. Transferring from a Birth Centre to hospital occurs when it is deemed necessary for the wellbeing of the mother and child or if the woman is too tired to continue where she is.

There are two ways you can look at this subject - failure or success. There are two ways you can deal with this if it happens to you - as a failure or with success.

When a family does transfer to hospital from a Birth Centre, everyone wants this to be a smooth transition. Obstetricians, midwives and staff absolutely love to see women cope with labour and fathers really help. All birth professionals want families to have a very positive birth experience even if you have to transfer to their care in hospital. This can be done when you have learned birth and coaching skills during pregnancy.

By using your birth skills you get to impress all the staff and lock into your memory what you have done for yourself in what has become your hospital birth. What do you think you’ll remember? Do you think you’ll just remember transferring from your desired Birth Centre birth or the great skills you’ve used for yourself? You can feel passive to the experience, disappointed and out of control, or continue to use your self-learned birth skills and get on with the birth.

Even if you need a cesarean delivery, you can use your birth skills such as Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation at every moment and during recovery. Working with your baby’s efforts to be born is always rewarding wherever you give birth.


You can prevent some reasons why you might have to transfer to hospital from your chosen Birth Centre birth. Childbirth is a very physical process. A very large object has to come out of a ‘container’. When we prepare our body for birth we do so intentionally to make that process easier and safer for both our self and our baby.

Part of preparing for our birthing body is also learning the birth and coaching skills that help us work with our baby’s efforts to be born on the ‘big day’. When we couple preparing our pregnant body for birth and use the skills to work with the process then we are more likely to self reduce some of the common reasons women transfer from Birth Centre to hospital.

If we have to transfer for very serious medical reasons we don’t have to skip a beat in using our birth and coaching skills. Our body will be somewhere even if we need medical assessments, monitoring and procedures.

Transferring to hospital from a Birth Centre might be a disappointment or a relief. When you have your birth skills you realise that where or with whom you birth is much less important than continuing to work with your baby’s efforts to be born.

So get on with the glorious experience of giving birth no matter what. Use your skills and you’ll always feel empowered.

If you want to know more about Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation, Kate’s Cat, Hip Lift and Sacral Manoeuvre then visit http://www.birthingbetter.com.

Learn more about The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better®, the only childbirth preparation course that focuses entirely on birth skills for mothers and fathers for ALL births.

Transferring From Home Birth To Hospital

Transferring from Home Birth to hospital.

Transferring from a home birth is never anticipated or else people wouldn’t plan home births. Transferring from a home birth to hospital occurs when it is deemed necessary for the wellbeing of the mother and child or if the woman is too tired to continue at home.

There are two ways you can look at this subject, failure or success. There are two ways you can deal with this if it happens to you - like a failure or with success.

There are some countries where there is an ease when transferring to hospital from a home birth because both are considered normal and natural places to give birth. And often the political/legal/care system is set up to make the transition as comfortable as possible.

In other countries, transferring from a home birth to hospital is very challenging for the family, the care provider who attended the home birth and hospital providers.

For any family, the choice of a home birth can be an emotional decision. For many families giving birth at home means being surrounded by what is familiar and doing things the way you would like. That alone does not guarantee that you will stay at home and not transfer to hospital.

You can greatly increase the probability of staying at home to give birth when you learn birth and coaching skills during pregnancy. Childbirth is a very physical process. A very large object has to come out of a ‘container’. When we prepare our body for birth we do so intentionally to make that process easier and safer for both ourselves and our baby.

Part of preparing our birthing body is also learning the birth and coaching skills that help us work with our baby’s efforts to be born on the ‘Big Day’. When we couple preparing our pregnant body for birth and use the skills to work with the process then we are more likely to self reduce some of the common reasons women transfer from home births to hospital.
If we have to transfer for serious medical reasons, and are glad we live in countries where modern medicine exists, then the skills come with us and can be used. Our body will be in some place even if we need medical assessments, monitoring and procedures.

When we transfer from home to hospital, we can still use these birth and coaching skills. Obstetricians, midwives and staff absolutely love to see women coping with labour and fathers really helping. All birth professionals want families to have a very positive birth experience even if they may not support your choice to have a home birth.

You might be glad or angry that you’ve had to transfer from a planned home birth to hospital. By using your birth skills you get to impress in your memory what you have done for yourself in what has become your hospital birth. You can either be passive to the experience or doing something for yourself.

Transferring to hospital from a home birth might be a disappointment or a relief. When you have your birth skills you realise that where or with whom you birth is much less important than the working with your baby’s efforts to be born.

So get on with the glorious experience of giving birth no matter what. Use your skills and you’ll always feel empowered.

If you want to know more about Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation then visit http://www.birthingbetter.com and learn more about The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better® the only childbirth preparation course that focuses entirely on birth skills for mothers and fathers for ALL births.

When Birth Plans fail

For the past forty years, expectant parents have been told to make a Birth Plan. This is like a wish list of what you would or wouldn’t like to happen on the ‘Big Day’. Of course there are factors that influence the ability to do that, whether about your health, doctor, hospital policies or your choices.

You are then expected to discuss your Birth Plan with your obstetrician or midwife and even the staff in hospital on the ‘Big Day’. Sometimes going armed with the Birth Plan is what gives you a sense of control over your birth.

But what happens if the desires or choices for your Birth Plan change? What happens to you mentally and emotionally when what you would have preferred doesn’t happen?

Obviously the emotions can range from disappointment to outrage, from being grateful to feeling foolish or from nonchalance to acceptance. And these aren’t the only emotions. Sometimes your true emotions don’t show up until months after the birth because you’ve had time to think about the events that brought about a change.

In the title the word ‘fail’ has been used. This doesn’t always mean that a woman feels angry about the changes. Sometimes the family fully understands the need for the Birth Plan to change, but almost always there is some sense of ‘what if’ and regret. This makes sense because you have spent a great deal of time thinking about what you would like. You might also have spent a great deal of time discussing and negotiating with your obstetrician or midwife.

Obviously you have invested in orchestrating the birth of your baby in the same way that you arranged your wedding or a very special surprise or birthday celebration. Birth Plans are important and mean something.

However, Birth Plans also have a quality of wishful thinking based on a perfect birth. They can also be based on beliefs rather than the reality of the day. Often women will say: ‘This is what I’d like but if … then…’

That makes the effort put into the Birth Plan a little unstable. There’s another way to approach birth that is much more likely to produce success, that’s learning good birth and coaching skills that you and your partner use throughout the birth experience, whether you labour, or during a cesarean delivery.

A ‘Plan’ is not an ‘Action’. Actions are what get you through labour feeling in control. Plans can often change.

Actions based on a good foundation of skills can be adapted to suit the situation. Being adaptable through actions you take (using your skills) means that you can work your way through this process feeling great about your management abilities, even if the events may be less then perfect.

Birth Plans that change don’t prevent you from using your Directed Breathing, relaxing inside your Pelvic Clock or using Deep Touch Relaxation with your partner.

The purpose of giving birth is to work with your baby’s efforts to come out of your body. That’s the only thing that’s important on the day no matter where, with whom you birth, what is happening to you or around you. With birth skills your birth becomes your reality rather than a plan that can fail.

If you want to know more about Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation, Kate’s Cat, Hip Lift and Sacral Manoeuvre then visit http://www.birthingbetter.com.

Learn more about The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better®, the only childbirth preparation course that focuses entirely on birth skills for mothers and fathers for ALL births.

Having an unassisted birth

It is a big decision to have a birth at home without the presence of a birth professional. Certainly the commonly used term ‘unassisted birth’ is not the best. This implies that you are not only making a decision to give birth without a professional, but also all by yourself or that no one is there to assist you.

Actually, if you birth entirely on your own you have to assist yourself and your baby to be born. When your husband, partner, friends, relatives and children are present they will assist you. However, the term currently used is ‘unassisted birth’. Let’s coin another phrase.

Birth is the ultimate in physiological processes probably because it’s so infrequent and involves two people (mother and baby). Other naturally occurring physiological processes such as hunger, sexual drive, menstrual cycle, getting sick or going to the toilet don’t involve a second person to the level of letting a baby out of your body.

Birth in any place at any time can be the most physically intense experience of a woman’s life. All over the world women are giving birth in the exact same way, one contraction following another. This will occur whether the woman is surrounded by loved ones in a safe environment or in the middle of a famine, war or tsunami.

Planning an ‘unassisted birth’ is a personal statement although it’s often perceived as a political statement.

It’s also often perceived as a rejection of something but in reality, it’s a choice for something. Sometimes that might be having a cigarette after birth when that would be discouraged. Sometimes it’s for the intimate privacy or the distance from hospital or lack of midwifery care.

Regardless of all these factors, one of the very best things you can do for yourself, baby and those who will assist you is to learn birth and coaching skills. Before you react to the word ‘coach’ let’s think about that role. A support person is there to give you support but little guidance. Coaching is not telling you what to do, it’s a person who can give both support and guidance as you need it. It does not matter what term you use as long as people know how to help you if and when you need some help.

Helping you during an ‘unassisted birth’ can be breathing, whereby you use Directed Breathing, helping you relax inside your body using The Pelvic Clock or helping you to relax using Deep Touch Relaxation.

Learning birth and coaching skills based on our human body can change the birth experience from something that happens to us into a conscious experience between the mother and baby as they work together.

Using Common Knowledge birth skills can increase the satisfaction of your ‘unassisted birth’. There is another reason to learn good birth and coaching skills. There are some times when it becomes important to seek medical care during a birth. When you have birth skills you can move into a medical environment still using these skills. This means you are much less likely to feel that your ‘unassisted birth’ has failed. Instead you recognise a need to have medical care yet continue to work with your baby’s efforts to be born.

However, where you have your baby may be important. Being able to work with the process of birth wherever you birth, or with whom, become much less important to the memories you’ll live with than to what you have been able to do for yourself. Using birth skills throughout labour and delivery is probably the most significant thing you can do for yourself and baby.

You will never regret being a skilled birthing woman or having your loved ones work with you. This is the true intimacy of childbirth and building your family’s intimacy.

If you want to know more about Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation, Kate’s Cat, Hip Lift and Sacral Manoeuvre then visit http://www.birthingbetter.com.

Learn more about The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better®, the only childbirth preparation course that focuses entirely on birth skills for mothers and fathers for ALL births.

Take Your Birth Skills With You To The Birth Centre

Increasing your odds to have a successful Birth Centre birth

Unfortunately Birth Centres are not that common. If you live near a free standing Birth Centre then you are very lucky. You’re more likely to have access to a hospital with a Birth Centre attached. You’ve may have already discovered that Birth Centres have stringent protocols and it’s very easy to fall outside their guidelines for acceptance.

If you get refused from a Birth Centre or get transferred to hospital, if you have learned good birth skills, keep using them and you’ll still have a really positive birth experience. Once you’ve been accepted to birth in a Birth Centre it’s important to increase your chances of birthing there.

Often families choose to birth outside hospital yet not at home. Birth Centres offer that in between place. Families want a more relaxed environment for the birth of their baby. Many decisions (Birth Plans or choices) are based on political feelings about birth. Somehow hospitals have gotten a bad rap, but it’s curious that so many families will head there if needed. So somehow the hospital is a love/hate place.

When a family chooses a Birth Centre because they have political, personal or philosophical beliefs around childbirth, when something happens to change those choices, despair often descends.

So there are two aspects to this article. First is how to reduce or eliminate the risks of transferring to hospital. Second is how to improve your hospital birth if you end up there.

One thing is certain, you’ll still have medical assessments, monitoring and perhaps some procedures during your Birth Centre birth. A perceived rough vaginal exam can occur whether the woman is birthing at home, hospital or Birth Centre. So a Birth Centre experience can be improved by what you bring to your birth - and that’s your preparation and skills.

In its simplest form childbirth is an exercise in plumbing, a large object has to get out of a ‘‘container’’. Keeping this understanding in mind, you can see how important it is to prepare the ‘container’ to let the object out as easily and safely as possible. Fortunately, pregnancy is the only time to do this and only after 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Preparing your birthing body has to do with learning skills to keep your ‘container’ open, relaxed and mobile. There are three parts of the ‘container’ the object must negotiate to come out:

1. The bony pelvis
2. The open cervix
3. The open birth canal

After 24 weeks your pregnant body begins its journey toward birth. Always keep in mind that birth is actually an active word, actions are taken in order for the object to come out of the ‘container’.

Along with preparing the pregnant ‘container’ for the activity of birth, it’s important to learn birth skills. Coaching skills for the birthing partner is also vitally important. Wherever you birth, pain is often connected to the activity of birth. Being at a Birth Centre does not change the pain perception and women can as easily tense up their ‘container’ in a Birth Centre.

The pain is connected to the cervix opening. This means it’s essential you learn to relax inside your Pelvic Clock, keep your sacrum mobile, remain in positions that keep the bell shaped curve of your contractions and stay open. These are learned skills that you use by linking your mind to your active birthing body.

If you don’t know how to reduce your own birth tension in response to pain this is more likely to lead to more assessment, monitoring and procedures and even transfer to hospital. So, the first thing you need to do is make certain you learn birth skills that come from preparing your pregnant body so you can cope and manage the pain in a relaxed manner. This means you have to look and act like you are coping with labour pains. That’s the first way you can assure the highest possibility of having a Birth Centre birth.

The second way you can increase the possibility of a Birth Centre experience is to make certain your baby comes through your birth canal. If you have tight muscles inside, or tense up, as this large object comes down to this area, then you risk delaying the final exit of your baby. By doing internal work from 32 weeks onwards, you can ensure that this part of your body can open easily without the characteristic stinging that often occurs.

Planning a Birth Centre experience is just one step on the road to success. However, once you’ve prepared your pregnant body and learned great birth and coaching skills then you’ll realise that you’re more likely have a successful Birth Centre birth.

However, you’ll also know that if you need more medical care that all your preparation and skills will give you the birth you imagined even if you end up in a hospital.

Find out more about preparing your pregnant body for birth at http://www.birthingbetter.com

If you want to know more about Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation, Kate’s Cat, Hip Lift and Sacral Manoeuvre then visit http://www.birthingbetter.com.

Learn more about The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better®, the only childbirth preparation course that focuses entirely on birth skills for mothers and fathers for ALL births.

Giving Birth In Your Own Home

Giving birth at home

It is always a big decision to have a birth at home. In some countries where there is little medical care, giving birth at home or in a birth hut is common. In countries where there is a comprehensive modern medical maternity model, home birth may be legal and supported or sometimes frowned upon. Home birth is almost always a political issue whether that is right, wrong, good or bad it is often the reality.

For most families who plan a home birth in modern countries, there is always the option to go to hospital if it’s necessary. All births can be made safer and better when you have good birth and coaching skills.

The father, partner, friends, relatives and children can also be there to help you cope with this very dynamic experience.

Before you react to the word ‘coach’ let’s think about that role. A support person is there to give you support but little guidance. Coaching is not telling you what to do, it’s a person who can give both support and guidance as you need it. Use whatever term you want as long as people know how to help you if and when you need some help.

Birth is the ultimate in physiological processes probably because it’s so infrequent and involves two people (mother and baby).

Other naturally occurring physiological processes such as hunger, sexual drive, menstrual cycle, getting sick or going to the toilet don’t involve a second person to the level of letting a baby out of your body. It’s important to make this journey as safe and easy for both.

Birth in any place at any time can be the most physically intense experience of a woman’s life. All over the world women are giving birth in the exact same way, one contraction following another. This will occur whether the woman is surrounded by loved ones in a safe environment or in the middle of a famine, war or tsunami.

Having skills such as Directed Breathing, relaxing inside The Pelvic Clock or having your partner use Deep Touch Relaxation changes the dynamics of childbirth. Learning birth and coaching skills based on our human body can change the birth experience from something that happens to us into a conscious experience between the mother and baby as they work together. Working with your partner, friends or relatives during the process of labour and delivery increases huge intimacy in your family.

Working with your baby’s efforts to be born in a conscious manner increases the great satisfaction you feel about your home birth.

There is another reason to learn good birth and coaching skills. There are some times when it becomes important to seek medical care in hospital during a birth. When you have birth skills you can move into a medical environment still using these skills. This means you are much less likely to feel that your home birth was a failure, instead when you recognise a need to have medical care you can continue to work with your baby’s efforts to be born anywhere.

Where you have your baby may be important however, being able to work with the process of birth where ever you birth or with whom becomes much less important to the memories you’ll live with than by what you have been able to do for yourself. Using birth skills throughout labour and delivery is probably the most significant thing you can do for yourself and baby.

You will never regret being a skilled birthing woman or having your loved ones work with you. This is the true intimacy of childbirth and building your family’s intimacy. This experience is enhanced when having a home birth because your home is where you express your own individual intimacy to both place and people.

If you want to know more about Directed Breathing, the Pelvic Clock or Deep Touch Relaxation, Kate’s Cat, Hip Lift and Sacral Manoeuvre then visit http://www.birthingbetter.com.

Learn more about The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better®, the only childbirth preparation course that focuses entirely on birth skills for mothers and fathers for ALL births.