Beth Kruger

I recently received a wonderful email from one of my prenatal students after the birth of her beautiful baby girl.   She raved about her daughter and relayed to me a story of her birth along with her experiences at the hospital. She used such positive energetic phrases to describe her birth experience, and I believe that she was truly transformed by the birth of her daughter. We all have that chance as givers of life to take our experience of childbirth and to give it the power and attention it deserves.

I wanted to include a little excerpt from her email to me because I want to talk more about the breath and it’s role in pregnancy, labor and motherhood.

Here is what Sarah writes:
“Now on to the yoga part of all this. I can’t thank you enough for your classes. For me, learning to stop & breathe in the present & focus on that was extremely helpful. It helped me with my initial contractions (I got an epidural), it helped when I got the epidural – I was very anxious about that, it helped when I was delivering – bearing down and just focusing on the pushing and it has helped me get through the recovery.
Even now, yoga breathing is helping me go to sleep when I can…focus on the present.  Deep, even breathing helps me to fall asleep and take advantage of the cat naps. And all the poses, strength building, etc we did, I think really helped during the pushing. The last 5 weeks of pregnancy I was getting to yoga classes about 4x a week.

Thank you so much Beth. I am planning on coming to your mommy & me class at some point…very excited about that.” ~From Sarah, mother of Shay.

This is really such a testimonial to the power of the breath. Yogis believe that all life rides on the breath. They believe that we are given a certain number of breaths in our life and so we must learn to control them, to lengthen them, and so to lengthen our very life. A really great idea, but maybe not one that every person out there can embrace.
However, it is hard to deny that closing the eyes and paying attention to the breath can have a very relaxing effect on the body. Just observing the pattern of your breath throughout the day can help you to slow it’s pace, and perhaps calm your mind. This observation of the breath is very powerful, and very easy. It is within anyone’s ability.

I have taught my three year old daughter to breathe when she needs to use the toilet and things are not really “coming out”. (A three year old can have some issues surrounding the potty and what comes out of them, I have discovered) So, at three, she has already started to master control of the breath. This helps her to be calm and relaxed which, you guessed it…moves things along much more easily.

As I teach in my classes, the breath is the most powerful tool that we have to change our reaction to any stimulus. The breath is so important, yet very often overlooked in our everyday lives. By bringing our attention back to the breath over and over throughout a stressful situation, like labor and birth, we can gain mastery of the pain and anxiety we might be feeling. The breath then becomes a point of focus and a way to release tension and discomfort.

As Sarah said, breathing has helped her to sleep more easily. It can also help new mothers by allowing them to trust in their ability to care for their baby in the way that is most natural and comfortable for them. Paying attention to the breath can help you to be a better parent, helping you to slow your immediate reaction to things that come up.

There is a really nice book and companion video about mindfulness and the breath, and it’s role in parenting. It is by Jon and Myla Kabat Zinn, called Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting.