Boost Contractions, Reduce Pushing: Hypopressive Breathing for Labor and Delivery
Pregnancy Mini Series
Part One: How to Prepare Your Pelvic Floor for Birth
Part Two: How Strengthening Your Glutes During Pregnancy Relieves Pain and Prepares Your Body for Birth
Part Three: Boost Contractions, Reduce Pushing: Hypopressive Breathing for Labor and Delivery
Part Four: How to Train Your Body to Push
When you're in active labor, the last thing you want to worry about is whether you're breathing correctly. Yet breathing is one of the most powerful tools you have during delivery! It can ease pain, increase the efficiency of your contractions, and help your baby move through the birth canal. The question isn't whether you should focus on breathing during labor, but rather: have you trained your body to breathe optimally during labor without having to think about it?
How Hypopressives Train Your Body to Breathe Optimally During Labor
Most birthing classes teach breathing techniques for labor, but few address the underlying mechanics of your respiratory system and how it connects to the reflexive activation of your core and pelvic floor muscles. This is where hypopressive training makes all the difference.
Hypopressive training is a specialized breathing and postural technique that lifts your organs, reduces the pressure in your abdomen, decompresses your spine and activates your deep core muscles involuntarily. This technique targets literally every single aspect of core training necessary for a strong and healthy pregnancy, delivery and post partum recovery.
When practiced regularly during pregnancy, hypopressives train your body to:
- Engage your diaphragm fully with each breath, creating space for your baby to move
- Gently lift your uterus with each breath you take, improving blood, lymph and nerve flow to your uterus
- Optimally activate your core muscles without conscious effort
- Reduce pressure on your pelvic floor throughout pregnancy and post partum, but especially during contractions
- Coordinate the muscles of your pelvic floor, deep abdominals, and diaphragm optimally for a smooth and efficient birth
The magic of hypopressive training lies in its ability to train the involuntary muscle fibers of your core—the ones that should activate automatically with every breath. During labor, these involuntary activations are key because they help baby move down and out.
By practicing hypopressive breathing during pregnancy, you're essentially creating muscle memory for optimal breathing. When labor begins, your body already knows exactly how to breathe for maximum efficiency and minimum strain.
This reflexive activation is particularly valuable during the pushing phase. Many women struggle to push effectively because they either bear down with too much force (straining their pelvic floor) or can't engage their deep core muscles adequately. Hypopressive training creates the perfect balance—your body knows when to engage and when to release, making your pushing efforts more productive with less risk of injury.
How The Core Recovery Method® Can Help
The Core Recovery Method® places hypopressive training at the center of pregnancy preparation, focusing on optimal breathing techniques that will serve you through delivery and beyond. Breath work to lift and center your uterus, decompress your spine and train the optimal muscle coordination necessary for birth is practiced throughout the day, and the results are incredible! Here's what one of my patents had to say:
“I went through The Core Recovery Method® while pregnant with my second and it was a GAME CHANGER! For starters, I knew exactly how to workout during pregnancy to protect my core and pelvic floor so that I wasn't having any leaking issues. On top of that, I was able to go through my whole pregnancy with minimal pain. With my first pregnancy I had a lot of pelvic pain at the end of my pregnancy making it hard to walk. This pregnancy I was walking two miles up to the day before I delivered. The most massive difference was during my labor though. I incorporated all the breathing exercises I had learned through the program as well as relaxing my pelvic floor. I had to only push twice and my baby was out, it was so incredibly fast and so much easier than my first labor. The first time I stood up after baby number 2 I also didn't feel like all my organs were floating around in my abdomen. I started incorporating my hypos the day after labor to help with healing, and not only did I bleed way less than I did with my first baby, I also had no issues getting in and out of bed because I still had core strength. A happy bonus was that at 4 weeks postpartum with baby number 2 my waistline was smaller than at 12 weeks postpartum with baby number 1! That was a pleasant surprise! I know that going through this program while pregnant helped me have a pregnancy where I could continue to incorporate movement, and play with my toddler. It absolutely made a world of difference in my labor and recovery. EVERY woman needs to do this period.”
-Leah B, Mother of 2, Health Coach
The Core Reocovery Method® teaches you:
- Specific hypopressive postures that are safe for each trimester of pregnancy
- Pregnancy modifications for hypopressive training that reduce pressure and prevent diastasis
- How to integrate hypopressive breathing into your daily life, not just during dedicated exercise time
- The precise timing and rhythm of breath that optimizes your uterine contractions during labor
Moms who practice The Core Recovery Method® throughout their pregnancy are more confident and in control during labor. Rather than panicking when contractions intensify, they instinctively know how to breathe through them. Their bodies have been trained to respond automatically, allowing them to remain present and focused during delivery.
Beyond labor itself, this breath training offers profound benefits for postpartum recovery. The same breathing techniques that support you during delivery will help your core and pelvic floor heal faster after birth, reducing your risk of issues like diastasis recti and pelvic floor dysfunction.
Breathing is your most powerful tool during labor—it's available to you at every moment, requires no equipment, and can transform your birthing experience. By training your core muscles to reflexively activate with every breath through hypopressive techniques, you're preparing your body to work with you, not against you, during delivery.
When you enter labor with a body that knows how to breathe optimally without conscious effort, you free your mind to focus on bringing your baby into the world with strength, confidence, and presence.
