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Is Breathing Exercise during Pregnancy a waste of Time? |
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By Ata Bos
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Saturday, 06 June 2009 |
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Pregnant with my second child and 8 weeks for the due date, our family moves to Heidelberg in Germany. In retrospect, this is the wrong decision. There just isn´t enough time to find out about the national health system, look into alternatives for delivery and, on top of all that, learn a new language.
Within a week, we find a praxis and meet with the gynaecologist who is prepared to do the delivery. The man, somewhere in his sixties, has a big red face and in combination with his white cap, looks like a butcher. That slightly worries me but with 15 kg extra weight on me and only 8 weeks left, I don’t have the time or the energy to locate another specialist in an unfamiliar city.
“Go to the antenatal course,” he mutters while checking my swollen belly with his huge, scarlet hands.
“Yeah, I’ll check the local swimming pool” I answer, trying to avoid his remark.
“Nein,” he insists, “relaxation exercises will prepare you for the delivery.” I remonstrate. “I don´t think I need such course. My previous delivery was peanuts.'
I try again in my lousy school German. All in vain: the will and authority of the German gynaecologist is stronger than that of an exhausted, 29 year old newcomer to the country.
A week later, I stand with 10 other blown up bellies with faces in the gym of a Catholic hospital run by nuns. There is no conversation, no nervous giggling: just peaceful, monastic seriousness. Only a young woman who as far as I can judge has never had babies firmly disrupts the quiet with her loud voice. I don’t quite understand what she said. It sounded dramatic but I find the atmosphere too intimidating to ask.
After some minutes supposedly listening, we are about to start the breathing exercises. “Schnaufen wie eine Lokomotive” (huff and puff like a locomotive), commands the baby-less woman. I can’t believe my ears and look at her in horror. These are the first words she’s said that I really understand but I know straight away that I'm not going to huff and puff like a locomotive.
I sneak as sneakily as possible with an oversized body to the door, leave the gym and never go to an antenatal course again.
Seven and a half weeks later our heavy-weight son is born after a speedy, huff-and-puff-less delivery in a German hospital.
So why is this relevant today? Eating my breakfast in Oulu, I read in the newspapers that according to a study by postgraduate student Malin Bergström from the Department for Woman and Child Health at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden that breathing and relaxation doesn’t make a difference to the 'birth experience.'
I quote: “Researchers conclude that natural childbirth preparation, including prophylactic training, does not reduce the need for epidural analgesia or improve the birth experience, when compared to standard antenatal instruction; furthermore they conclude that inclusion of parenthood preparation, as in the standard care model, has no effect on parental stress in mothers and fathers in early parenthood.”
Apparently Malin Bergström received e-mails from angry women who claimed that antenatal courses worked well for them. Yeah right. After three deliveries, two miscarriages and a 10 minute relaxation course I think she’s absolutely right. Antenatal breathing exercises are hot air.
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