By June Connell, ICCE, CD(DONA)
The breath is the link between the body and the mind. In the yogic philosophy, how we breathe long and deep or short and shallow can affect and determine our overall emotional, physical and spiritual well-being.
Every time we breathe, messages are sent to the nervous system about the emotional state we are in at that particular moment. The breath lets the nervous system know if we are feeling stress or fear, or if we are feeling safe and relaxed. As soon as the nervous system picks up the emotional cues from the breath, it signals the glandular system to produce and disperse the appropriate hormones to the parts of the body that need them.
The pituitary gland, known in the yogic tradition as the master gland because it controls the entire hormonal system, is located below the hypothalamus, just outside the brain and behind the nose. It has two lobes, the anterior and the posterior. It produces a variety of hormones, many of them linked to reproduction. But it is in the posterior pituitary gland where oxytocin, produced by the hypothalamus, is stored and ready to be released when the hypothalamus gives the signal.
Oxytocin, a Greek word that means sudden delivery, is called the love hormone because it is one of the key hormones that helps us find a mate, get pregnant, stay pregnant, go into labor, labor effectively, and ultimately birth a baby. Immediately after birth, oxytocin is present at its highest levels ever so that a new mother can deeply bond with her new baby. Without oxytocin, some scientists say, we might cease to behave in ways that facilitate the propagation of the species.
So the question is: How can a woman in labor produce the most oxytocin possible to help her labor progress? The consensus is that it is through her breath. Study after study points to how conscious breathing can lower blood pressure, slow the heart rate and decrease stress. It is also clear that yoga and meditation have direct and positive effects on both mother and baby.
In her book Mindful Birthing, Nancy Bardacke, CNM, teaches an Awareness of Breath meditation, a simple exercise where the participant focuses all of her attention on the breath, how it feels moving in and out of the body, and how to use the breath to quiet a wandering mind. Bardacke says it is breath awareness that creates the foundation for a mindfulness practice that is key for childbirth.
The conditions that encourage your body to produce lots of oxytocin include both the external birthing environment, and your inner birthing environment, which is deeply influenced by the state of your mind, says Bardacke. She adds that when we are in a state of stress during childbirth, we inadvertently trigger the fight or flight response and inhibit production of oxytocin just when it is needed most. But a mindfulness practice can help a women let go of her thinking mind in labor, and instead create a positive internal environment where she can access her more primal state, release more oxytocin and help her hormones reach their fullest levels.
Another way to access that primal state during labor is by repeating a sound or mantra to help keep the mind focused, in the case of labor, on something other than the pain of a contraction. One of the easiest sounds to make is hmmmmmmm. This is the first conscious breath exercise I share in my birth classes, and I often use it as a warm-up in my prenatal yoga classes. Some women are very self-conscious about making noises, so it's good to practice during pregnancy. Try it right where you are. Close your eyes, place one hand on your belly, the other hand on your heart, inhale deeply, and hum on a long, deep exhale. Hum on a low note, and feel the vibration it creates in the chest, in the nasal area, and behind the eyes.
According to Dharma Singh Khalsa, MD, in his book Meditation as Medicine, these vibrations can stimulate the glands, in particular, those located in the head, such as the pituitary and the hypothalamus which produce oxytocin.
Sound currents also strongly influence the chakras by vibrating the upper palate of the mouth, which has 84 points connected to the body's ethereal energy system, says Dr. Khalsa. Some of these points carry energy directly to the hypothalamus and to the pituitary.
Ina May Gaskin agrees that deep abdominal breathing is a positive practice in labor. It causes a general relaxation of the muscles of the body, especially muscles of the pelvic floor, she states in her book Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. She says that when a woman is tense in her mouth and jaw, it can inhibit the cervix from opening, so she encourages women to relax their mouth and throat muscles make a sound pitched low enough to vibrate your chest.
The ultimate enlightenment in yoga is to develop a neutral mind, to be present in every moment, to become stillness in motion and to find peace during action. It is hard to imagine that in the very active state of labor, a woman could be any of these, yet with good support, a positive external environment, a conscious breath and a focused sound, a laboring woman can produce the oxytocin she needs for her labor to progress without the need for external interventions, and find peace and calm in the internal stillness.
June Connell, ICCE, CD(DONA), is a Happy Birth Way professional childbirth educator. She integrates her knowledge of the birth process in her roles as a birth doula and a yoga teacher (Yoga Alliance). She teaches birth and yoga classes throughout Pinellas County and supports women in labor at hospitals and birth centers through the county.
Published: December 15, 2013
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