Breathe, Focus, and Push with Power | 140

Whether you're a first time mama or a seasoned pro like me, you deserve to have a beautiful, calm, in control, and powerful experience. So we're going to be talking about breathing, mindset, and pushing with power, which are three key elements that will transform the way you experience birth. So let's dive in and rock your labor like the incredible lawyer that you are.

No, sir. You are not allowed to do that to your mama. Not okay. Hello. Hello. You pushed him in an hour. Wafa, that is amazing. Okay, you guys, let's go ahead and get started. Y'all ready? We're going to be talking about breathing, mindset, and pushing with power. Hi, Jenny. Oh, that's one of my mamas. She is one of my old school mamas.

So we're going to be talking about your toolkit, which is going to include breathing and mindset. Okay, deal. You guys like that? I have seen so many mamas go from feeling out of control to feeling really empowered by learning how to master their breathing and their mindset. Now, if you're a part of my world, which hopefully you are, if you're not in my classes yet, shame on you.

Now, some of you guys have been hanging out a lot with me, and you know that I am completely, 100 percent obsessed with EFT, or tapping. And that is another, Another way to help with your mindset and your breathing control and it's emotional freedom techniques and it's basically finding, like emotionally or physically what you're experiencing and we identify that and then we go through some movements to deal with that.

So first up, we're going to talk about breathing. So, breathing, going to do some before my appointment. So Jenny is in my community, she's in my birth classes, she's been, it's her second baby with us. And we did some tapping last night on our weekly pregnancy hangout on Zoom. And it really is incredible how many emotions it can release inside of you.

And it's so powerful and it's a simple tool that you don't need to pay someone to do. You can do it yourself. But today we're going to talk about breathing. Breathing is absolutely essential when it comes to having a peaceful labor. The way that you breathe and learning to control your breath can actually reduce the pain of labor and keep you more focused.

Okay, so in early labor, let's talk about early labor. In early labor, it's very simple. Your technique is just slow and controlled and in a rhythm. So early labor are going to look like breathing in through your nose, out through your mouth, nice and easy. So let's practice, okay? Take a breath in and out,

So you're going to take it in nice and slow, in through your nose. I want you to tell yourself things like, get air down to the baby. So Manda just joined us. So Manda, take a nice deep breath in through your nose, down to the baby, and then slowly breathe out the stress and anxiety. So the, the key to early labor is slow, controlled, rhythmic breathing.

You take it in to the count of four, out through the count of six to eight. That takes practice, so put your hands on your belly, it's not going to be super easy at first, but once you get that type of breathing down, you can use that for the rest of your stinking life, your parenting career, your birthing, all of it.

We're going to be doing short focused breaths during the peak of the labor. So you'll start off your contraction with a nice deep cleansing breath. The beginning of the contraction. You might want to do another slow in slower out. breath. But when you get to the peak of the contractions, you might do something more like, Ooh, like a moaning out, right?

This is when your partner's going to need to refocus you, you're still going to do that deep, J breath, which is what we call it. So in for four, out for six to eight. But you might add in like the horse lips or the vibrating lips and you're gonna do something with a low guttural moan. Again, that relaxes your pelvic floor and it keeps you by, by focusing on breathing rhythms, you're gonna be focusing on that instead of panicking and freaking the freak out.

Again, if you're not in the classes, comment class or go to labor nurse mama.com/calm, CALM. And we want you practicing your breathing techniques before labor starts. You guys hear me? You don't wait until labor to start trying to practice your jay breathing, try to practice your, your vibrating lips or your guttural moans because it's too late.

Once you're in labor, your job is to labor. Now you're going to implement the tools that I taught you. So trust me on this. I want you practicing. Light your candles. I've got my little candle over here. Light your candles. Get your vibe going. You want to have your birth queen vibes going. And then practice J breathing, horse lips, and guttural moans.

She's getting a little anxious, right? Well, that J breathing will help you refocus and stop being as anxious. So take some time every day, even if it's just a few minutes. Practice your breathing. And trust me, your body and your mind will thank you later. So now let's talk about part B, which is mindset. I cannot stress to you guys enough, whether it's having a baby, raising a child, being married, building a business, mindset is everything.

What you think and what you believe can truly Shape your experience. So if you're waking up every day and you're like, Oh my God, this is, this is gonna be so horrible. What if I can't handle the pain of labor? What if I, I won't know how to breathe? And what if I don't know how to push? And what if I'm a big wuss?

So what we want to do is we want to flip those fearful thoughts. We want to flip the negativity and we want to replace it with truth, with affirmations. It's so silly that it can be so powerful, but telling yourself every day, I am a birth queen. I am a capable, Mom, I am strong. My body is incredible. My body can birth the baby that I built.

Those things will affect your birth experience in such a powerful, positive way. So positive affirmations, visualizations, grounding exercises, tapping, all of those things, EFT, emotional freedom techniques. We are going to teach you all of those things inside the classes so that you can stay focused on the fact that you are capable and strong.

Picture yourself calmly breathing. Picture yourself working with your body, not against it. Using the tools that Labor Nurse Mama taught you. Feeling empowered. And remind yourself, I am a freaking boss, A double S, biatch. I can birth this baby. Probably gonna have to delete all of that. But remind yourself, Of the things that resonate with you, that make you feel strong and powerful.

And you know darn well the root of her horror birth story was a lack of education. A lack of understanding of how to work with her body instead of against it. So, I want you guys to remind yourself. I like my body. I trust my body. I am strong. Each contraction will bring me closer to my sweet little baby.

These small mindset shifts have a huge impact, especially when labor throws you a little bit of a curveball. So mindset isn't just about thinking positive thoughts, it's about preparing for unexpected and knowing, knowing deep in your soul that no matter how your birth unfolds, even if you have to process, you know, the, the emotions of like, shoot, I didn't want that to happen.

Understanding how to move your legs, how to move your, your hips. Another thing that's really powerful to understand is that you're not using your pelvic floor to push. You have to learn how to relax your pelvic floor. So your pelvic floor is like a lock, right? And you have to learn how to loosen the lock, open the lock.

And this is where your breath will come back into control. So as your contractions are building, we do our deep breath again. And then. There's different things and I teach this more inside the classes. So again, comment class if you want to know all the things or go to labor nursemama. com forward slash calm and We'll we'll walk you through exactly how to Hold your breath when you need to hold your breath or not hold your breath when you don't need to hold your breath because There's a combo like I people ask me.

When you do that, you're pushing will become so much easier and so much more effective. Some of the common mistakes that I see or have seen over 16 years of labor and delivery experience is that either women are like so anxious that they're not listening, they're just like pushing. And so, Not listening to me.

I'm not talking about listening to me. I'm talking about listening to your body when you work with the contraction. It's like having a strong man to lift up the barbell right instead of having to do it yourself. So you don't have to force it. You just learn to lean into what your body is doing. It's really about timing and intention and then knowing how to Open your body knowing how to relax your pelvic floor.

If that's not what like. When I had all my babies, they were all unmedicated, at the very last minute I would fall back onto a wonky side back position. That's what my body was telling me to do, not someone else. Now my first baby, I pushed in the stirrups, it was, you know, textbook. And I had an episiotomy, I had a tear, I had to use a vacuum.

Hello? Had I been let to push with my body instead of against my body, probably wouldn't have experienced all those things. So, remember, when it comes to your birth experience, some of the most powerful things, no, the most powerful things you can do, have a stellar mindset, learn how to breathe, I know that sounds weird, right?

You can control your breathing. You can stay grounded and focused and powerful when it matters. Most and I you know, I always say this this birth experience. This happens one time for you guys You'll remember it forever for you and this baby one time So why not be the one who is navigating and controlling all the decisions that is like that's my jam I want you guys to be the one who's In control who is the birth queen?

All right, you guys. I hope you have an amazing afternoon. I hope that you guys are all doing well. I love y'all if you're not in the classes yet comment class all right, you guys have an amazing afternoon.

Bye for now.