Madison Smith
body + movement + voice
Breathwork for Birth and Beyond
Breathwork for Birth and Beyond is a 2-part online workshop that gives you essential breathing and pushing skills to make labor safer and smoother so you feel prepared, empowered, and physically supported from delivery through postpartum.
About the workshop
Breathing is your greatest asset during labor, delivery and postpartum and yet most prenatal courses don’t offer much practical guidance into how to use it properly. Pushing and bearing down will only get you so far and, if not done correctly, can actually work against you in the delivery room. Once you discover how to release, open, and engage the proper muscles for breathing and pushing you can make birth smoother and recovery faster. Using this deep, embodied awareness helps transform your birth from uncertainty and fear into clarity, comfort and strength.
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This is not your momma’s Lamaze class! This isn’t a bunch of breathing patterns that you'll only use during labor, this is about learning how your body actually wants to function both for breathing and for birthing to help you feel prepared, empowered, and physically supported from delivery through postpartum.
Over two 1 hour sessions, you will gain a deep understanding of what good, fully coordinated breathing actually feels like in your body and how you can use that to increase strength, calm your nervous system and help prevent injury during labor, delivery, and postpartum.
Labor & Delivery
Most labor courses talk about bearing down and pushing the baby out, but they don’t actually specify what muscles you should be using to push with or how. When you’re not using the correct muscles in the correct way you greatly risk your chances of perineal tearing, slowing down the descent of the baby, and even make contractions and delivery more painful.
The key is learning how to release key muscle groups so that you can breathe fully and allow your uterus to do more of the work. Then, when timing is right, you can engage the proper muscles to help push the baby out in a way that not only reduces your risk of tearing, but also helps you feel stronger and more connected to your body - no matter what kind of birth experience you have.
And by learning these simple exercises during pregnancy can also greatly improve your postpartum experience as well!
Postpartum
Learn how specific breathwork practices can guide you in the postpartum phase in reconnecting with your body, rebuilding core strength, and regulating your nervous system when everything is stretched thin (literally and figuratively!). You will be armed with key exercises to support your recovering body and help you care for your child without the risk of developing other postpartum injuries.
This workshop is suitable for first-time as well as pre-seasoned parents. It is low-effort, high-reward and designed to accommodate most physical limitations to help you come back to your body as easy and gently as possible. Exercises are designed to be useful whether lying down or sitting and can fit easily within the demands of the newborn phase. No long hours or complicated programs – just simple exercises that help you heal after delivery.
About the organizer
Madison Smith combines The Alexander Technique, DNS, Functional Movement, Yoga for Trauma, Physical Therapy practices, and exceptional breathing skills as a professional opera singer to rewrite the book on what breathing is for women and mothers. Focusing on the anatomical basics of breath, Madison’s work is designed to ease pain, build strength, find peace and inspire confidence on this journey into parenthood.
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