Crowning a baby's head with yoga during childbirth

The process of birth is a long and complicated one. One that sees every woman handle it differently. Whether you have an epidural or birth your baby naturally is no ones business but yourself. But if you would like to have a natural birth, yoga is totally beneficial and really quite critical.

Many mothers attend yoga classes when they are pregnant and find that this can awaken something primal within them that they had either forgotten about or just didn’t know they had. Birthing your baby is such a primal experience, as is breathing that it is quite necessary to work your breath in a powerful manner to get your baby out.

I recently was present in the room as my friend birthed her baby, what a wonderous experience. Something I had never seen, only being present at the birth of my two children. Now, my children had been delivered naturally, something I am quite proud of so it was fantastic to see it from the other end.

By the time I had reached the crowning point of birth (when the baby’s head is at the opening of the vagina) for both of my kids I had wanted to rush the babies out. Not slow it down as advocated by so many of the natural midwives I had spoken to. They proclaimed that once the crowning was there you could slow the breathing and gently push the baby out, that way helping to stop any tearing of the perineum. I had rushed both of mine out, ready to reach my child, not wanting to wait a moment more and had consequently had two rounds of stitches. Not the end of the world but really not that enjoyable.

My girlfriend reached the crowning point after a long and fantastic labour. We had a natural birthing midwife with us and two friends alongside, then me. Her baby reached the crowning point and I could see the head. Immediately I wanted her to push the baby straight out in the next contraction. Get the baby out I thought.

But the natural midwife had other ideas. She raised her voice and told my friend to slow her breathing down and focus on her breath only. Slow it down, slow it down and gently push out the baby, wow I thought. My friend followed the instructions of the midwife and slowly and gently found the concentration on her breath that she needed and her baby gently and slowly entered the world. It was a breathtaking experience to watch what I had heard about so many times and to see it was possible.

The power of the breath is magnificent and we tend to use it so little to control our minds and our lives. My friend was a prime example to me that yoga and learning to control your breath is the path to a calmer and more serene mind.

Her baby entered the world to a place of calm and wonder. My friend was empowered beyond belief, firstly that she had managed to birth the baby at all and secondly that she had slowed down, kept her power and birthed her baby her way. I am sure that now, one week later, her baby is sleeping well and is unaffected by such a huge bodily experience by the fact that his mama learnt and controlled and used her breath for herself and him.

We all have the ability to control and harness the power of our breath. Pregnant women are in a very specific state of being and find the place to learn this and do so. It is not just pregnant women that benefit from learning to work and control their breath. We can all do this and find the benefits that come with this, happy heart, open soul, calm mind. Yum