FOR MIDWIVES, DOULAS, CHILDBIRTH EDUCATORS & ALL BIRTH PROFESSIONALS
What You Were Never Taught About Breathing Could Be Making Your Clients’ Labours Longer, More Painful, and More Complicated.
A myth-busting 3-hour live training reveals the hidden respiratory science behind pregnancy and birth, and why the breathing techniques most birth professionals teach are doing the opposite of what you intend.
 August 27, 2026 · Live Online 2pm - 5pm EDT with replay included · Space Limited
APPPAH Certificate of Completion · CE Credit from the Professional School of Behavioral Sciences
There’s a question every birth professional needs to ask themselves — and almost none of them do:
"Am I actually helping my clients breathe better… or am I training them to breathe in ways that research now tells us increases pain, slows labour, and stresses the baby?"Â
If that question makes you even a little uncomfortable, keep reading. Because what you’re about to discover isn’t a criticism of your care. It’s an invitation to go deeper than you’ve ever been allowed to go — into the physiology that governs everything happening during birth.
Breathing is the single most powerful physiological process shaping every pregnancy and birth you attend. And yet — it’s the one most birth professionals were never properly taught.
Not because you weren’t paying attention. Because this information simply wasn’t in your training.
Until now.
The Problem No One Is Talking About
Breathing techniques are everywhere in birth culture. Apps. Classes. Hospital handouts. YouTube videos. “Breathe through it.” “Pant like a dog.” “Take a big cleansing breath.”
Birth professionals teach breathing techniques with the best of intentions. They want their clients to feel calmer, experience less pain, and have safer births.
But here’s what the science actually shows:
Many of the most popular breathing techniques in perinatal care cause hypocapnia — a drop in CO₂ levels that dysregulates the nervous system, constricts blood vessels, increases pain perception, and can slow or complicate labour.
The Truth:
CO₂ is not a waste gas. It is essential to oxygen delivery, nervous system regulation, and smooth muscle relaxation — three things you desperately want working for your client, not against her, during labour.
And the tragedy? The symptoms of dysfunctional breathing during pregnancy are so common they’ve been normalized. Shortness of breath. Anxiety. Fatigue. Braxton Hicks. Tingling. Dizziness. Hyperventilation during pushing. We’ve been calling these “part of pregnancy.” They don’t have to be.
You didn’t cause this problem. But once you understand the science, you’ll be in a position to be part of the solution — for every client you serve from this day forward.
A Career Built on Getting This Right
🏆 APPPAH Conference — #2 of 43 Global Presenters
At this year’s APPPAH conference, 43 researchers, physicians, and perinatal specialists from around the world presented. Lisa’s session on the psychophysiology of breathing during pregnancy and birth was rated by participants in the #2 of the entire conference.
Lisa V. Kusch has spent the better part of three decades in perinatal care — as a doula trainer, a childbirth educator, a mental health recovery program director, and a clinical breathing behaviour analyst.
She created Canada’s first 200-hour Certified Doula Training. She ran a pregnancy and parenting health centre offering over 30 new public classes weekly. She has supported births in hospitals, in community settings, and among some of the most vulnerable mothers in the country.
And then, a few years into her advanced clinical work, she made a discovery that changed everything she thought she knew about breathing and birth.
“I realized I had been teaching breathing techniques — confidently, for years — that the science now tells us were making things harder for my clients. Not because I was careless. Because no one had taught us the physiology underneath the technique. That’s what I’m here to change.”
— Lisa V. Kusch, MSc Applied Breathing Sciences
Here's What You'll Discover.
- The CO₂ paradox: Why the gas your clients are trying to “breathe out” is actually the key to less pain, faster labour, and a calmer nervous system — and what happens when levels drop too low.
- The 17 symptoms: A specific list of identifiable complications and discomforts during pregnancy and labour directly caused by dysfunctional breathing — that most birth professionals currently treat as “normal.”
- The well-intentioned intervention problem: Which popular breathing techniques are scientifically shown to dysregulate the nervous system, increase pain, and slow labour — and what to do instead.
- The psychophysiologic triad: How chemistry, mechanics, and psychology interact to create your client’s entire birth experience — and how intervening at the right point changes everything.
- Breathing changes across the perinatal year: What actually happens to respiratory physiology during each trimester, during labour, and postpartum.
- Live capnometry demonstration: See educational capnometry in action and understand how it can be integrated into maternal healthcare.
- The screening framework: A practical method for identifying dysfunctional breathing habits in your clients before those habits compound during labour.
- How to protect yourself: The breathing strategies that protect your own stamina and nervous system on long shifts.
- The contraindication list: Specific breathwork interventions you need to stop recommending to perinatal clients — and the science behind why.
- The paradigm shift: How to motivate clients to move from dysfunctional breathing patterns to adaptive ones that support a normal chemical axis and reduce suffering.
This Training Is For You If…
You’re looking for a passive, lecture-only experience. This is a live, participatory training. Lisa will demonstrate breathing assessment live with participants. You will be expected to be present, engaged, and ready to have some of your assumptions challenged.
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Lisa V. Kusch, MSc
Lisa V. Kusch is a clinician, educator, and the founder & CEO of Conspire Health. She holds a Master of Science in Applied Breathing Sciences and brings a background in psychology, special education, and over two decades of perinatal care.
Her experience supporting birth spans from the Riverbank Mental Health Recovery Home for pregnant and new mothers, to directing the Birth Rhythms Pregnancy and Parenting Health Center — offering over 30 community programs weekly and comprehensive supports for new families.
She created Canada’s first 200-hour Certified Doula Training, has served Indigenous and marginalized communities, and completed graduate work in Applied Breathing Sciences alongside a 2,000-hour Breathwork Facilitator Trainer program.
Lisa is now in private practice as an Applied Breathing Sciences Specialist and Registered Psychotherapist, certified in somatic breath therapy, breathing behaviour analysis, and behavioral biofeedback. She consults on breathing and perinatal health for hospitals and universities.
What Birth Professionals Are Saying
"I've attended Birth Psychology Month for years and this was a standout."Â
— MidwifeÂ
"Honestly didn't expect to be this moved. Lisa's work fills a gap I didn't even know needed filling."Â
— DoulaÂ
SPACE IS LIMITED FOR THIS TRAINING. ONCE IT'S FULL, IT'S FULL.
This live, 3-hour online training with Lisa V. Kusch includes:
âś“ Live capnometry demonstration
âś“Â Practical breathing screening framework
âś“Â Access to session recording (details TBA)
âś“Â Completion Credit from APPPAH and the Professional School of Behavioral Sciences
Registration is open! Training date is August 27, 2026, 2pm - 5pm EDT with replay included.Â
Claim your spot
My Promise to You
If you attend this training, engage with the material, and don’t feel it was worth every dollar — reach out within 7 days and we will make it right. I stand behind this content completely. I’ve spent decades arriving at this knowledge, and I am confident it will change the way you work.
— Lisa V. Kusch
The Science of Breathing Has Been Waiting for the Birth Community to Catch Up.
You have the chance to be among the first birth professionals to fully understand it.
Live Online  · August 27, 2026 · APPPAH Certificate of Completion Provided
Presented in partnership with the association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health