Anecdote
A woman is squatting, breathing heavily and deeply, in and out, in and out. It's the only way to go through this, to survive, to feel without yielding. Her breath is so powerful that it accompanies her through these intense sensations. The moment the midwife says she can push, her breathing changes.
She takes a deep breath in and pushes, applying pressure and briefly holding her breath. Holding her breath gives her a feeling of extra strength precisely when it's needed. It gives her a sense of power she didn't know she had. At the end of her strength, the push, she exhales loudly.
And again, she takes a deep breath, holds it in her diaphragm, and pushes once more. This time, the midwife gently asks her to exhale while pushing. It aids circulation and doesn't put too much pressure on her head. She exhales in gentle puffs, feeling that the strength remains with breath-holding. During these contractions, she can take a few breaths, preferably through her nose, and push along. Then, pfff.
Intuitively, she repeats this five more times with the subsequent contractions, and after the final buildup of strength, she exhales, she cries, she laughs, she softens, she trembles, she feels exhausted and yet more alive than ever.
At that moment, a roar, call it a cry; it's a epic essential first breath. A human's first breath occurs in the first 10 to 20 seconds after birth. The respiratory muscles spring into action, the lungs fill with the first breath of air, and the baby breathes!
Unbeknownst to the mother, this roar is a sign for her to lean back and relax. Gradually, her own breathing returns to an unconscious state. She has completed her task. For about 40 weeks, she carried this developing little human in a completely sterile environment within her. Fully equipped with their own feeding and oxygen supply mechanisms. The baby was entirely dependent on its mother.
The little human, arriving with a roar in this space, unconsciously gasps for its first breath. The first thing it does is inhale, and that's when its life begins.
The First Inhalation
This moment, the start of a life, the start of a breath, is a moment when we intuitively know how important breath is. And even though your birth may have begun differently, there was a moment of your first breath. Since then, you have often not been conscious of your breath, and at other times, you have. There arose a desire in you to know more about breathing and breath awareness. In the coming period, your desire in this regard will be fulfilled, and you will work on transitioning from unconscious to conscious breathing, from the physical to the mental, and experience what this can mean for you and your clients. For now: just breathe!
