We breathe all the time. While a woman gives birth her breathing changes all the time. When a woman has great breathing skills then she is more likely to cope and manage the natural occurring pain of labor contractions. What about a woman who is having a Caesarean birth? She can use her Directed Breathing skills to control fear or anxiety, pain or excitement and stay involved and engaged in her baby's birth journey. How does Directed Breathing improve the skills of a Birth Coach? When a father/other actually has the skills to help a woman cope and manage the experience of giving birth then the woman feels great and the coach feels valuable. Directed Breathing is not just about breathing, it's all about using breath to expand and soften individual parts of the birthing body. This can reduce pain, create space and give focus and just plan fill time by doing something for yourself. Directed Breathing is one of the very best childbirth skills for the birthing woman and birth coaching dad.

1. Directed Breathing

2. Directed Breathing
Is a specific type of breathing that is
a Must Do for every type of birth.

3. Directed Breathing enables you to
give your total attention to your
baby’s effort to be born rather than
be passive.
Directed Breathing has also been
the number-one skill used during
Caesareans, whether after labor or
non-laboring.

4. Breathing and Labor
Women who use positive types of
breathing throughout labor
Focus on each breath cycle
Concentrate on how they breathe,
and
Make sounds that are controlled and
appropriate.

5. Women who use negative types of
breathing
Sound stressed,
Moan, groan, and sometimes scream.
During labor, always remember to NOT
waste your breath.
Labor is energy, huge energy.
The energy of hard work coincide with an
increase in the pain.

6. The purposes of Directed
Breathing:
1. Expand specific parts of your body
with your inhalation.
2. Use your exhalation to relax
specific parts of your body.
3. Use your breathing to focus on the
task and the moment at hand.

7. Directed Breathing as a Focus
Childbirth is not the only experience
where using breath as a focus helps.
You might already be aware of this and
have done so to help yourself or others.
Think about getting a tattoo or a root
canal, doing an athletic event or
presenting at a company meeting.

8. Directed breathing is when you
are very conscious of your
breathing. It is
When you pay attention to what
your inhalation and exhalation sound
like so you can self-evaluate whether
your sounds indicate you are coping
or not.

9. Pay attention to how you vary the
depth/shallowness of each
inhalation/exhalation so you can adapt
each type/variation in just the right
manner for yourself, depending on what
you are experiencing.
Your ability to share breathing with your
partner will help you cope.
Inhale into or exhale from a specific part
of your body.
Expand or relax/soften specific parts of
your body.

10. Woman
In labor and birth, use Directed Breathing during a
contraction and/ or in between contractions (see
“The 5 Phases and the Bell-shaped Curve”).
Make a choice during labor to use breath as a focus.
It can be a matter of self discipline to override a
negative and restless response to pain, in order to
accept pain as part of the process and become a
good manager of the experience.

11. Coach
As labor gets more intense, she has to turn
inward and not fight the process, and
external stimuli can be very distracting.
If your partner is having difficulty getting to
that place of focus inside herself, suggest
that she try focusing on an object or image,
closing her eyes, or looking into yours –one
of those should help her focus her breath
and herself.

12. Learning Directed Breathing
Learning to breathe well has been
the easiest of the Birthing Better
Pink Kit skills. That’s because we
breathe all the time anyway.
During labor we come to
appreciate the value of our breath.

13. Exercise: Directed Breathing
This is a form of Mindfulness: focus,
paying attention, and concentration.
1) Now place your hand on your chest:
breathe into your hand, and feel your
hand and chest expand.
2) Exhale from this area while you
intentionally relax under your hand and
in your chest. This is Directed Breathing.

14. 3) Put your hand on each of these places
in this order: belly above your navel,
belly below your navel, and sacrum.
4) Remember to intentionally expand
each area with your inhalation and
relax each area with your exhalation.
5) Put your hand on specific places next:
your left shoulder, your right thigh,
your lower back, and the back of your
head, and direct your breathing into
each of these parts.

15. Directed Breathing and Dilation
Breathing well is an invaluable tool
for managing the pain of a
contraction, and it will also assist
the dilation of the cervix.
Dilation occurs throughout the 1st
stage of labor until the cervix is
fully open (10cm).

16. Let’s see what dilation looks like.
Both of you do this.
Make a fist with one of your hands
and look at the hole created by your
index finger curled into your palm-
not much of a hole.

17. Now, place the tip of your index finger to the tip of your
thumb and make a circle. That’s about 3cm. You should be
able to get three fingers of your other hand into that hole.
Use the fingers of both your hands to make a circle, with your
index fingers overlapping and your thumbs overlapping- make
the index finger of the right hand stop at the base joint of the
index finger of the left hand, and make the thumb of the right
hand stop at the base of the other thumb. You’ve made a hole
created by your two hands that is about 5-6cm.

18. Look at the hole you just created. As
you inhale, permit your fingers to
create a slightly larger hole. With
the next few inhalations, feel how
you can further open that hole.
Finally, create an in-breath that
opens the hole all the way, so that
the tips of your index fingers touch
each other and the tips of your
thumbs touch each other.

19. EXERCISE: DIRECTED BREATHING
AND THE BELL CURVE
First do this while sitting, then
standing, then lying down.
The skill you’ll develop from this
exercise is what you’ll use to
encourage and follow effective
contractions.
All effective contractions are bell-
shaped, which means they always
have a peak.

20. Both of you do this. It’s vitally
important that the birth coach
knows how to create relaxation
inside their pelvis.
1) Tense up inside your pelvis, and
hold the tension.
2) Now direct your inhaled breath, to
expand inside your pelvis, letting
go of the tension.

21. 3) Do a normal out-breath.
4) With your next inhalation, expand
the relaxed areas down there a
second time.
5) Exhale normally and repeat and
expansive inhalation a third time.

22. Try one more exercise in directing
your breath.
1) Sit opposite each other in
comfortable positions.
2) Doer: Tell the Recipient where to
place their Directed Breathing, and
pay attention to each other.
3) Recipient: Expand on the in-breath
and relax on the out-breath.

23. Talk about what you have
discovered. Notice that
You may or may not have been
able to see changes in the other
person’s body when they breathed
into a specific place.
This task involved both of you
working together.
You each had a job.

24. Directed Breathing and Touch
You’ll need to be familiar with the
specific forms of touch-relaxation
in “The Right Touch” to do these
next few exercises.

25. EXERCISE: DIRECTED BREATHING +
DEEP/RISING TOUCH
Take turns. Combining different
skills requires real teamwork.
1) Doer: First, apply your deep-
pressure touch. Coordinate when
you lighten your touch with your
partner’s expansion-inhalation.

26. 2) Receiver: You’ll breathe normally
until your partner has applied
their deep-pressure touch. As the
touch begins to lighten, use your
inhalation to expand under your
partner’s touch.
3) Repeat, but this time the Receiver
uses their exhalation to relax while
the doer lightens their touch.

27. EXERCISE: DIRECTED BREATHING +
STILL/STATIC TOUCH 1
1) Doer: Touch some part of the other person’s
body. Rest your hand on that part with intent,
and keep it there while your partner
completes three breath cycles.
2) Receiver: Without forcing your breath, inhale
and expand that spot, then exhale and deeply
relax in that spot. Repeat that expansion and
relaxation two more times, each time
expanding then relaxing more deeply.

28. 3) Doer: Repeat this exercise on two
different parts of your partner’s body.
4) Receiver: Taking three breath
cycles gives you the time to truly use
that Still/Static Touch to deeply,
deeply expand and relax.

29. EXERCISE: DIRECTED BREATHING +
STILL/STATIC TOUCH 2
1) Repeat the above exercise while the
Receiver changes into another position:
standing, lying, or kneeling.
2) Doer: Touch the exact same spots. Your
purpose is to allow the Receiver to
notice how the same spots soften/relax
better or not so well depending on their
body position. Pay attention to which
positions create the deepest expansion
and relaxation.

30. 3) Receiver: As you use your three
breath cycles to deeply relax in
each of these places, notice how
each spot relaxes differently now
that you are in a different position.
This can be a light-bulb moment!

31. Common Language for Directed
Breathing
Woman can say:
Please remind me to
breathe in through my nose, and out
through my nose or mouth.
breathe more deeply.
let go of any tension as I exhale.
expand inside my pelvis on my next
inhale.

32. Coach can say:
Really use your exhalation to relax
anywhere you feel tense.
Use a cleansing breath after each
contraction. Take a really deep
breath in, and then make your
exhalation like a big sigh. (This
releases all the built up/accumulated
tensions.)

33. Benefits of Directed Breathing
It is a great tool for opening up, expanding, relaxing, and
reducing tension anywhere in your body and mind.
It is the simplest skill a Birth Coach can use to help a
birthing woman stay in control.
It is easy to do without force, and it doesn’t take lots of
effort. It is sustainable and relaxing, not tiring.
It doesn’t leave you feeling funny in your head or body
(i.e. hyperventilating).
You can modify it as you adjust to the changes of the
labor process.