Breathwork Techniques for Postpartum: Science-Backed Ways to Calm Down Fast

In the postpartum period, it’s normal to go through moments of feeling on edge, depleted, and exhausted. When you’re taking care of a newborn, it can be hard to take care of yourself — especially while physically recovering, or if your pre-baby stress outlets, like exercise, aren’t available to you in the same way they once were. 

Fortunately, there’s an evidence-based tool that can help you regulate your emotions and nervous system. It’s something that everyone has access to at all times, makes a measurable impact, and costs nothing: controlled breathing, aka breathwork.

What is breathwork?

Breathwork is taking deliberate control of one’s breathing patterns — a “novel yet ancient method” that civilizations around the world have explored for millennia. Breathwork practices like pranayama, xingqi, and qigong have long histories but limited academic study. However, there is a growing body of evidence of medical research supporting a range of breathwork exercises for their associated benefits, including lowered cortisol, reduced heart rates, lower stress, and improved mood.

If you practiced lamaze or breathing exercises during labor, you’ve already experienced how powerful controlled breathing can be. Even Navy SEALs practice “tactical breathing” to manage high-pressure scenarios — known by another name, “box breathing”.

Breathwork is the fastest, most accessible tool available for calming your nervous system, whether you’re feeling anxiety, rage, sadness, or (equally likely) all three. Best of all, it’s a self-soothing tool you can use any time and any place with no equipment needed — even while holding an infant, folding laundry, or finally getting to use the bathroom.

Breathwork techniques for postpartum recovery and regulation

There are endless ways to bring attention and intention to your breath. We’ve gathered some of the most researched and evidence-supported breathwork techniques that you can try to support postpartum recovery and nervous system regulation. 

Cyclic breathing

1. Inhale twice through your nose, quickly (like you’re sniffing something)
2. Exhale slowly through your mouth with a soft sigh or hum
3. Repeat.

A 2023 Stanford study showed that just 5 minutes a day of cyclic breathing improved mood and reduced anxiety, more than mindfulness meditation alone (which itself has measurable benefits!). Protip: Don’t skip the sighing/humming. Those vocal vibrations help stimulate your vagus nerve, telling your parasympathetic nervous system to relax.

Box breathing

1. Inhale for 4 beats
2. Pause, holding the breath for 4 beats
3. Exhale for 4 beats
4. Pause for 4 beats before inhaling
5. Repeat.

Known by a few names (equal breathing, tactical breathing, 4x4 breathing, square breathing), this is the same technique that Navy SEALs drill to withstand extreme scenarios. Try experimenting with drawing and releasing breath through the nose or the mouth. You can also try slowing the pace of the 4 beats, or increasing from 4 to 6, 8, and so on.

Diaphragmatic (belly) breathing

1. Sit or lie down with one hand on your belly.
2. Inhale through the nose while allowing your belly to rise softly.
3. Exhale and let the belly gently contract.
4. Repeat.

Diaphragmatic breathing is often one of the first recommended recovery activities for postpartum patients, starting as early as that first week after delivery. It’s not only good for emotional regulation — diaphragmatic breathing also supports postpartum pelvic floor recovery and is foundational to treating conditions like diastasis recti and Obturator Internus pain.

Single nostril breathing

1. Cover your right nostril gently with your finger.
2. Breathe in through the left nostril.
3. Switch your finger to uncover your right nostril and cover your left
4. Exhale through your right nostril.
5. Inhale through the right nostril.
6. Switch your finger to uncover your left nostril and cover your right
7. Exhale through your left nostril
8. Repeat.

This is also known as alternate nostril breathing or nadi shodhana in pranayama. This technique manually slows your breathing by strategically manipulating your airway. Slower breathing is correlated to a reduction in cortisol levels, slower heart rate, better autonomic regulation and a host of “improvements in cardiovascular, respiratory, and neural outcomes”.

Postpartum emotional dysregulation

For most people, mood swings don’t end when the pregnancy does. Postpartum is its own unique emotional rollercoaster. 

On a basic level, our nervous system has two states: “rest-and-digest” mode (parasympathetic) and “fight-or-flight” mode (sympathetic). Postpartum bodies are especially prone to getting stuck in fight or flight for a whole host of reasons, including:

• Estrogen and progesterone drops right after childbirth, directly affecting the brain chemicals that regulate emotions
• Cortisol can spike and stay elevated, making anxiety worse
• Sleep deprivation and compounding exhaustion
• Overstimulation
• Overwhelm with pressure and responsibilities
• Physical recovery from pregnancy and labor (especially traumatic births)

The most intense hormonal changes start to stabilize around two weeks after birth, but full emotional and hormonal stabilization can take 6 months or more for postpartum patients. Staying in an elevated state of anxiety, “keeping it together” and simply pushing through might feel like it can work in the short term, but after a while? It can fry your nervous system.

Mental and physical signs of postpartum emotional dysregulation

Even if you haven’t received a clinical diagnosis like postpartum depression, anxiety or another PMAD, you could still be dealing with a dysregulated nervous system.

Signs to watch for:

• Difficulty sleeping/staying asleep (even when you’re exhausted)
• Chronic tension, especially in the jaw, neck and shoulders
• Headaches and sensory overload (e.g. everyday sounds suddenly seem extremely loud and irritating)
• Unexplained upset stomach, heartburn, and ulcers 
• Racing heartbeat and/or thoughts
• Feeling “touched out” (a strong need to not be touched)
• Feeling numb or detached, like you’re watching your own life

Why breathwork works: Breath, emotions and the postpartum nervous system

Breathwork might have a bit of a woo-woo reputation, but the evidence is clear. Practicing self-regulation while you’re postpartum is a science-backed strategic move.

Breath is intricately woven into how we experience and regulate our emotions. Think about how your body and your breath feels when you’re anxious. Your heart might race, your breath shallow and quick, and you might have a restless energy like you don’t know what to do. You might even hold your breath, maybe without realizing it.

This relationship actually runs two ways - your mood affects how you breathe, but how you breathe can also affect your mood. This means that by taking control of the act of inhalation and exhalation, we can actually exert control over our mental state.

The postpartum period can feel chaotic, so taking control over even a seemingly small thing like your breathing patterns can have a huge impact — and not just for the postpartum person. A calmer parent also can respond better to baby's cues, get better sleep, and even recover faster. Regular breathwork practice improves heart rate variability (HRV), a sign of your adaptability and resiliency to stress. It can even boost overall immune function. It’s also a skill that you can model and eventually teach to your kids as they grow and navigate their own emotional worlds.

If you want to discover more quick self-soothing techniques, here’s a great list from the University of Maryland Medical System. And if you need a little more help getting your nervous system back in control, know that you’re not alone! Working with a mental health therapist who specializes in pregnancy and postpartum can help you break out of fight-and-flight and breathing easy again.