We take THOUSANDS of breaths each day, so it is understandable how impactful breathing can be for our health and fitness. So how to breathe during pregnancy (and in general) if we want to maximize its positive impact on our health and the health of our baby?
Diaphragmatic breathing is usually the best strategy, as it best manages pressure and mobility of the deep core muscles (including the pelvis floor). However, not all of us breathe correctly! And ONLY breathing into our belly can be problematic for your health and fitness and your birth!
Watch this video for a break down of diaphragmatic breathing: how to inhale and exhale properly to support your core health and optimize your performance with your workouts!
If you want to discover more than just breathing techniques, join our Childbirth Education Course Today!
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How to Breathe During Pregnancy: Top Breathing Mistake and Why It Affects Your Birth
First, let’s talk about what should happen when you breathe.
When you inhale, your diaphragm moves down and flattens. This downward movement increases pressure in the abdominal cavity (everything below your rib cage to your pelvic floor). This increase in pressure helps to stabilize the spine.
As the diaphragm moves down, the surrounding musculature also expands because of this increase in pressure–and we should see a 360 expansion of the BACK, SIDES, BELLY, and PELVIC FLOOR.
If you ONLY expand in the belly, there is a lack of movement in the back, sides, and pelvic floor. And this decreased, or restricted movement can result in issues.
After you inhale, you exhale. You have two options for exhaling:
- Relax and allow the muscles to recoil back to their starting positions
- Exhale to contract the muscles.
When you exhale, the strength of the exhale will depend on the demand–if you are just sitting there, you don’t need to exhale and contract as hard as possible. If you are lifting heavy weights though, you may want to exhale much stronger to counter the increase in pressure with muscular activation.
In the rest of this blog, we will break down WHY belly breathing is an issue and what you can do instead if you are having a hard time breathing properly!
Watch this video for a break down of dysfunctional breathing patterns and how they may affect your core health!
Why is belly breathing an issue, and how can it affect your birth??
Belly breathing is when you inhale and push your air directly into your belly. This usually results in a big expansion of your belly and an arching in your back.
This constant breathing and expansion in the belly usually means that the backside of the body and backside of the pelvic floor are NOT expanding.
Why is that an issue?
First, we want a 360 breathing pattern because this more evenly distributes pressure.
If we only direct pressure to one location, it can overwhelm this point and cause issues. For the belly, constantly breathing into the belly can cause a worsening diastasis or cause it to linger longer since the tissues are being overly stretched with every single breath you take.
Next, if we are ALWAYS breathing into our belly, it is preventing our backside from expanding and stretching. This can result in a tighter backside of the body AND a tighter back half of our pelvic floor.
This may mean that you have a harder time finding two very necessary movements for birth: posterior pelvic tilt (tucking the butt under) and internal rotation of the pelvis (knees in). If you cannot find these movement patterns due to restrictions, your baby may have a harder time entering or engaging into your pelvis, and your baby may have a harder time finishing their rotation in the pelvis = labor stalls.
Watch Episode 24 of the MamasteFit Podcast to learn more about the importance of these two movement patterns for birth!
Join our prenatal and postnatal workout programs to learn more about proper breathing techniques and have weekly workouts delivered to your phone! Our fitness programs all come with an educational course to teach you HOW to approach workouts throughout your pregnancy and in the postpartum. Workouts are more than just a random list of exercises–how you do those exercises matters.
Improve Your Breathing: External Feedback Props
The first step to improving your rib cage expansion with your inhales, is to add some external props to direct your breathing! I like to use a long resistance band, but you can use any sort of strap or even just your hands.
Place the band around your rib cage, and then inhale to try to stretch the band away from your body. This will focus your breathing in the sides and back of your rib cage (where we want our breath to be directed).
If you are still having trouble feeling expansion in your rib cage, try rounding in the back a little. This can help you direct it more to your backside, which takes us to the next step: back expansion breathing drills.
Back Expansion Breathing Drills
Next, we can put ourselves in a back-expanded position to help us breathe more into our backside. This will also help to release tension in the backside of the body and the back half of the pelvic floor! I find this standing back expansion breathing drill to be most accessible during pregnancy and is a part of the MamasteFit Birth Prep Circuit.
The MamasteFit Birth Prep Circuit focuses on releasing common areas of tension during pregnancy and helps you find those two really important movement patterns: posterior pelvic tilt and internal rotation at the hip. You can grab a free PDF of our birth prep circuit here!
Breathe to Support Your Core and Birth
Belly breathing is not an optimal way to breathe–it puts too much pressure on the abdominal wall and is not a great pressure management strategy as it does not evenly distribute pressure. Additionally, belly breathing can result in a tightening or restriction of the back and posterior pelvic floor, which can inhibit two really important movements for birth: posterior pelvic tilt (rounding in the back and pelvis) and internal rotation at the hip. If you cannot find those two movement patterns, it could result in a labor stall.
So, when you’re breathing, focus on expanding in the rib cage, mostly to the sides and back, and you will feel that pressure is more even in your core canister, you’ll feel your lifts improve, and you will increase your mobility as you prepare for birth or recover postpartum!
Prenatal and Postpartum Fitness Programs
Feel strong and move comfortably throughout your entire pregnancy. Our program syncs to your current week of pregnancy, so you can start at any time!
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Stay strong with our shorter prenatal workouts! Workouts are 15-20 minutes long, including a warm up, strength workout, and mobility cool down! This program includes pelvic stability and pelvic opening workouts too!
- 5 Workouts Per Week
- 20 Min Workout
- Labor Prep Workouts
- Teambuildr App Access
Our postnatal strength and conditioning program helps you navigate your return to fitness after the birth of your baby! Start with a rehabilitation program, then progress towards lifting weights. Feel stronger and lift heavier than ever before!
- 16 Week Program
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