The world of midwifery has evolved into an evidence-based practice where research is needed before we can implement new ways of providing care. After experiencing how mindfulness helped me prepare for my own journey into motherhood, I made a professional decision to incorporate mindfulness into all aspects of my maternity care.

Personally, I can vouch for the positive influence that mindfulness has on the women I support, but obviously, it is impossible for me to determine the long-term impact on their growing infant! This makes me determined to compile as much evidence-based research on the subject, so I can make mindfulness in pregnancy common place in our Maternity Units.

When you do a medical publication search on “The Effects of Maternal Stress on the Unborn Child” you get endless amounts of journal articles. But… when you search “The Effect of Maternal Mindfulness on the Unborn Child” the research is limited, but thankfully growing!

One such study conducted in the U.K assessed 79 infant’s neurocognitive functioning at 9 months of age. These infants where categorized into a group born from mothers who did not practice mindfulness during pregnancy and the ones who did practice mindfulness during pregnancy, both from 20 week’s gestation.

Now… I have to use a few fancy words to give the correct impression and information, so bear with me! Science can test what is called ERPs (Event Related Brain Potentials) in infants by measuring their auditory attention. Auditory attention in infants is a key aspect of early neurocognitive functioning. Simply put, “using sound to determine an infant’s response to that sound while measuring their brain function at the same time”.

What this study found; was the infants whose mother practiced mindfulness during pregnancy devoted fewer attentional resources to frequently occurring irrelevant sounds. So, they did not use their brain function on sounds that do not matter or sounds that are irrelevant to teaching them something! Showing that positive traits and experiences of the mother during pregnancy can affect the unborn child.

If the research continues to study the “unborn child” not just the pregnant mother, then it will be easier to educate women on the importance of mindfulness in pregnancy. If we can emphasize the beneficial effects that a positive psychological state during pregnancy has on their unborn child, this may promote healthier behavior’s in pregnant women.

If you are unsure of how to practice mindfulness, it can be as easy as going for a walk on the beach. Mindfulness can be a state of mind, or a physical activity that you schedule into your daily life. We can make a conscious choice to practice mindful activities and we can also spend time working on our emotional reactions to the world around us. If we keep the physical and emotional practice of mindfulness in balance, we are on the way to living a more positive life!

5 Tips for Emotional Mindfulness:

• Stay in the present moment.
• Don’t over analyze every situation that makes you feel uncomfortable.
• Accept that there is only so much that can be done. If you cannot control things that are outside your control, try working on the ones you can change.
• Trust in something bigger than yourself.
• Find the beauty in every moment, even the horrible ones.

5 Activities That Can Help You Stay Connected to Your Physical Self:

• Go for a walk – in nature.
• Join a Yoga class.
• Listen to an inspiring podcast.
• Practice meditation in your daily life, see below for a useful free app.
• Harness the power of creativity. You might like to paint a picture, write in a journal, or for the non-creatives try some colouring in!

MINDFULNESS TO ME…

Being aware and responsive to everything around us. The more aware we are of our thoughts and how these thoughts control our emotions and our behavior the easier it is too self-reflect and grow.

I aim to find the beauty in all things, even if it is difficult. I fight with myself to control negative emotions, so that I can be free at of any ego.

I want to teach my kids not to be afraid of their emotions, but to acknowledge good thoughts and bad thoughts, but to move on and not be critical.

Move forward each day and grow as compassionate human beings.

That’s what I hope for as a mother and as myself, I will practice every day to live a mindful life…

Written by Amy Read (RM/RN/IBCLC) Owner of The Mindful Mama Co.

• https://themindfulmama.com.auhttps:
• //www.mindthebump.org.auhttps:
• //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24925904

This is for the DEVOTED DADS who support the mindful mamas. If all the dads in the world could show their kids how to be kind, imagine the impact. Happy Father’s Day!

Mindfulness in kids can start with getting in touch with their more sensitive side. As parents we can start by teaching them the importance of kindness. Learning to share toys with their friends, being gentle with pets and encouraging lots of cuddles are great ways to learn kindness. You could also read stories that focus on inspirational people in history who encouraged kindness and equality. Discuss the Diary of Anne Frank and her famous quote “despite everything I still believe people are of good heart” or how Martin Luther King, Jr., lead peaceful and powerful demonstrations to support civil rights. Look for opportunities to develop positive role models in their own life and make time for close relatives. Once every couple year try and get involved with a volunteer program, like a day in a soup kitchen or taking part in Clean Up Australia Day. Celebrating compassion and love can make a young kid feel better, even when nothing is wrong.

I feel like this is a common question that interviewers like to ask celebrities, influencers, and entrepreneurs. As a midwife and lactation consultant, I say to myself on a daily basis, “Geez, I wish I had known that when I was pregnant!” You see I was NOT a midwife when I had my first 2 babies and I was NOT a lactation consultant when I breastfed any of my babies, it sure would have made life much easier if I knew then what I know now! I totally GET that part of the growing and learning is in the journey, but these 5 things could have made the journey so much more rewarding!

Here goes….

5 Things I Would Tell My “FIRST TIME” Mummy Self!

1. “Go to Childbirth Education Classes, don’t be so stubborn, you may tell yourself that you don’t need to go, or that you will just take it as it comes”. BUT what you might actually be experiencing is fear of the unknown, fear you may be judged, or just fear of sheer embarrassment. If you are anything like me, extremely self-conscious, then you must address this prior to walking into the labour room. I was living away from my family and friends when I fell pregnant with my first baby. My hubby was working on a bridge with a deadline, so he couldn’t get the time off to go to classes. My fear was going alone and being judged for being alone. I thought people would think my husband didn’t love me enough or was not supportive enough. I had so much self-doubt about going to these antenatal classes alone, that I didn’t go at all. The reality of turning up to the hospital not knowing anything, was actually more embarrassing and it affected my birth story!
2. “Listen to the Advice of Others”. I am sure you already hate this advice! But what if the advice was just to “listen and accept that we are not all the same and you may not want to do half of what is being advised” But what if half the advice DOES resonate with you and helps you to change something which makes a huge impact on the rest of your life. You don’t know what you don’t know! Imagine 10 years of study, 25 years of work experience, and 12 years of being a mother, that is something worth listening to, right? Just imagine the education that I could give a first- time But, do they want to listen? Sometimes but not always.I thought my baby would sleep through the night from day one. No matter how many times I was told that newborns need to be fed every 2-3 hours, I would not believe it, somehow thinking I must be giving birth to a robot that sleeps 12 hours a night! And I could have saved myself a lot of grief and instead organized my new life as a mother who was definitely NOT going to get much sleep!
3. “Practice Yoga Throughout My Pregnancy” This one could be my number one! What I know now about the benefits of optimal fetal positioning, which is just a fancy name for Yoga… WOW! The position of your baby in the womb when you present in labour, is the single most important variable on how your labour will progress. And then knowing that there is something you could do about it; I wish I had known this! Not to mention the benefits to your own mind and your baby’s nervous
4. “Bring Whoever You Damn Well Want into Your Birthing Space” This advice is for my second time “mummy” self! Look, let’s be honest, I think we all know how supportive our other halves are going to be in labour and maybe we are too scared to admit it to ourselves. OR, we hope they are going to miraculously change once the labour starts! My husband was pretty good, but he was not vibing with me! There was no boost of the much – needed oxytocin (apart from the drip) no back rubs, no staring longingly into each other’s eyes, no changing into board shorts so he could get as wet as me in the shower! What he did do was protect me when I needed the strength to stand up for myself and he never once left my side.But what I knew I needed was my mother or my sister, which would have been uncomfortable for him. Only in an embarrassed, private sort of way. I did need to give my wonderful husband the chance to be amazing and supportive in my first birth, but once I worked out that this is NOT his thing, I should have had my mumor sister in the room for my next 2 births. As a midwife you start being of the opinion that birth is “woman’s business” and that few men are really good at it. If Russell Brand was my husband, well than it would be different! You might be lucky enough to have a man that sees birth and the birth space as a spiritual and ritual rite of passage into the physical world. My husband does not share this view, for him it is traumatic, watching someone you love going through such pain without being able to control it, but my mother, she would have shared my view!
5. “Join a Mother’s Group”. Again, my egoic mind was in control and I must have thought, “I have enough friends, I don’t need to go   and mix with strangers for support”. I have watched as all my friends developed amazing friendships with the girls from their mother’s groups! And the babies have all grown up to have great childhood friends, even sometimes tackling prep together. Mothers groups are a way to off load to others around you who get you. There is no need to have to explain yourself to people who do not understand. I feel like this is even more important in today’s society, where social media is such a huge presence, and women are checking out instead of checking into the “real” world. We need human connections, and your growing baby needs to watch you making these connections, so that they can see the importance of women supporting other women!

I will leave you with my favorite celebrity quote to this question as I think it is relevant to the journey ahead. Good luck and try and enjoy the ride!!

Jada Pinkett Smith

“I wish I had known then that pain is just a part of your journey and it’s not because you’ve done something wrong or because you’re cursed or you’re a bad person, we’re all going through it”, Jada revealed to ET. “We all have pain; we all have a story. And, so, all we need to do is support each other through it and I wish I had known that, ‘Jada, it’s just a part of it, baby. It’s going to be okay.’”

The last few years, you have been one busy woman, working, exercising, socializing, renovating, trying to get pregnant, training a new puppy, making sure the extended family is happy! Phew it’s exhausting, but we are all doing it, right?

Whatever your days were filled with, it’s a sure bet they were filled! Now your baby has arrived and we are suddenly filled with the expectation of the mother we should be, we better not get it wrong.

The pressure of listening to everyone else’s opinion; should we breastfeed, should we sleep train, should we buy disposable nappies or wash our own; how long do I breastfeed, do I go back to work and put my child in daycare…. so many opinions that self doubt starts to creep in.

All this chatter, combined with sleep deprivation, makes you an easy target to actually listen to all these opinions. When really it is the voice inside yourself that you should be listening to, your intuition.

You may have lost it in all this “noise” but it’s easy to get it back. Mother earth is inside you and your baby needs you to get all the noise out of your head. Come back to that little voice inside yourself, start believing in your intuition and this will guide you to be the perfect mother to your baby, not anyone else’s baby, but yours. This is true bonding, getting quiet and tuning into your baby and yourself.

You are his or her mother and you know what is the right thing to do, it just takes practice and you can start by meditating. You will thank yourself that you took the time for YOU. Put all the chatter aside for a moment and think to your self, “I need to listen to myself more often!” What you will gain from bringing mindfulness into your life is a more joyful mothering experience.