Transition is sometimes one of the more difficult parts of going through in labour. Recently as we have been moving over the past three months, the process has been painful, tedious and sometimes taken way too long. Just like transition in labour for some of us.
We are ready to push, have already endured the process of the first stage of labour and however long that has taken, but we are told not yet to push.
We are guided by the instincts, intuition and skills of our midwives, and doctors, to help us to know when we are meant to be ready to push. If we do push too early, then in labour, the cervix which isn’t quite fully open, will swell and may make the whole rest of the process longer.
So, waiting until the timing is right, is hard!
How can we learn to keep being patient when we want things to happen faster?
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We can breathe. Even through the process of moving house, schools and location, I really needed to dig deep into my breathing out ability, that I had engrained in me, from teaching this to women to use during labour.
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We can dig deeper. We can get right down deep inside of us and dig deeper, until we know that we are ready to deliver.
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We can wait, and let our body do what it needs to do, a skill that is easily overridden by emotion, by stress and by overwhelm, and not stopping and allowing it to ‘just happen’.
Training for labour takes time, intuition, skill, focus and practice to tune in and to tune out together. Tuning in to your body and your breathing, together with the other things that improve your locus of control, and tuning out, of the things that are distractions, not to be our focus for the moment and that take us off our game.
There is so much to learn on the journey in becoming a mother.
Take one step today and refocus deeply on breathing out, and as you do, let go of the distractions in the moment and let yourself just BE for two more breaths.
Slowly let your body breathe in as you are ready, and BREATHE out, focusing on that breath out, letting go of the other distractions.
And repeat, doing this again one more time, fully breathing out this time and letting go. PAUSE and hold that moment.
If you have a story about how breathing control has helped you in labour, let us know. We’d love to hear more about your story.