When we're pregnant a lot of us become 'chest breathers' especially towards the end of our pregnancies as the baby is getting bigger and taking up lots of space and our lungs are getting squished so it becomes harder to take deep breaths.
After having our babies quite often we dont return to our normal way of breathing and stay chest breathing. If you think you may be a chest breather try a little test - put one hand on your ribcage and one on your tummy. Take a breath in and if neither hand moves then you're likely just breathing into your chest.
Diaphragmatic breathing or abdominal breathing has lots of benefits such as:-
It helps you relax, lowering the harmful effects of the stress hormone cortisol on your body.
It lowers your heart rate
It helps lower your blood pressure
It improves your core muscle stability
It improves your body’s ability to tolerate intense exercise
It lowers your chances of injuring or wearing out your muscles.
It slows your rate of breathing so that it expends less energy.
It helps reduce stress
Here's a brilliant short video I came across which takes you through how to perform diaphragmatic breathing.
Give it a go and then practice a few times a day - when you're waiting for the kettle to boil, feeding the baby or watching tv until it becomes natural to do it without thinking about it.
Comments