Mastering Labour Contractions: The Power of KPIs

They say, “What gets measured gets managed.” When I first heard about imagining labour contractions as waves or vague metaphors, it seemed wishy-washy and ineffective. As someone who seeks a concrete approach to managing challenges, especially the impending storm of labor for a natural, unmedicated birth, I knew I needed a more structured strategy.

Finding Familiar Ground

Having a background as a competitive swimmer, I realized that my experience with measuring, repetition, and timing could be applied to labor. In my swimming days, training sessions were a symphony of meters swum, repetitions, and finishing times.

For example, one set would be to swim 10 x 100m in 2 minutes each. 100m are 4 lanes in a 25m pool. You have to get through each 100m and through the set of 10. The faster you swim, the longer the break you get within these 2 minutes.

The parallels between labor contractions and swimming sets became evident – both involved managing effort and strain as well as regaining your strength within set intervals.

Embracing the Power of KPIs

In the world of sports, athletes are no strangers to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These quantifiable metrics guide training and progress. Labor, too, has its own set of KPIs. The most commonly known might be the popular “5-1-1 rule” for contraction timing.

In three pregnancies, the only indicator that came true for me was the length of the contraction: approximately one minute. After each contraction you get a break of a few minutes. Therefore, you should pay attention to the individual contraction. This finite timeframe of intensity, much like completing a lap, can be measured, managed, and controlled.

The Essence of Control

The heart of successful labor management lay in the sense of control for me, and control can be derived from understanding and mastering the process. The key to achieving this control during labor is through the art of breathing. While many childbirth classes emphasize visualizing serene scenes to accompany your breaths, my approach sought structure and precision. This brought me to the importance of counting and regulating breaths.

Breaking Down Breathing

Breathing is a natural function of your body that you usually don’t pay special attention to. As a swimmer, however, you have to pay attention to your breath as you try to e.g. figure out the stroke frequency to breathe when swimming free style. Every second or every third stroke?

During my swimming teacher education we discussed the breath cycle in more detail. Normally, your breath cycle follows the rhythm of breathe in, breathe out, pause. When you’re swimming however, the cycle is breathe in, hold your breath while completing strokes, breathe out, turn your head out the water and breathe in again quickly. If we can learn to optimize our breathing for swimming, we should be able to do so for labour as well.

So, the question was simple: How do I best breathe to get through a contraction? The average breath cycle is about 5-10 seconds. During labour the breathing would be more focused on deeper and longer breaths as also taught in my Hypnobabies Home Study Course (Read my review here). In the realm of labor, control means having the ability to manage the contractions, which led me to counting breaths – one, two, three, four for inhalation and one, two, three, four, five, six for exhalation. These breath cycles came close to 15 seconds.

The Breath-to-Contraction Ratio

To put the power of controlled breathing into perspective, let’s consider the simple math. If one complete breath cycle takes 15 seconds, then you have to complete only 4 breath cycles to get through a contraction of one minute. Suddenly, the challenge of going through contractions seems much more manageable.

Practice Makes Perfect

Preparing for labor wasn’t just about acquiring this knowledge; it was about practicing and building confidence. In the weeks leading up to my due date, I dedicated time to practice my breathing technique. I aimed to sustain a 15-second breath cycle for one minute, which meant repeating this pattern four times to complete one full minute. This method served as my anchor during labor – a rhythmic guide that tethered me to control and purpose.

Gaining Control, Breath by Breath

The beauty of this approach is its simplicity. Instead of anxiously wondering when a contraction will end, I focused on each individual of the 4 breath cycles to get me through the contraction. With every inhalation and exhalation, I marked my progress, inching closer to the finish line of that particular contraction. This method not only provided a tangible sense of control but also a way to visualize progress within the intensity.

Conclusion

As expectant mothers, we often seek methods to navigate labor that resonate with our personalities and preferences. For those who thrive on structure and measurements, embracing the idea of labor as a series of manageable moments can be empowering. By honing in on the length of contractions and adopting a breath-by-breath approach, we can channel our inner athletes – finding strength, control, and even a touch of excitement in the face of the labor journey. So, as you prepare for this incredible experience, remember that sometimes, the simplest strategies can hold the greatest power.