Mindfulness & Meditation for Midwives & Mamas
- Duration: 60 Mins
- Credits:
- Learning Format: Online Webinar
- Handout: Yes
- Origin: GOLD Midwifery 2019
Abstract:
A simple and effective mindfulness and meditation program, designed for midwives to use for themselves and teach to their clients, is presented. Stress can contribute to and certainly exacerbates nearly all pregnancy, labor, and postpartum health issues and complications. Yet, there is little regarding stress management included in midwifery texts. Midwives may feel ill equipped to assist clients in dealing with generalized stress. Further, midwives themselves may lack the tools to moderate their own stress levels that naturally result from the demands of midwifery. Studies show that mindfulness and meditation both have the effect of reducing stress, and, in some cases, have improved clinical outcomes in patients. Both mindfulness and meditation will be discussed, and participants will leave with a downloadable, small-scale daily mindfulness and meditation PDF program, utilizing proven stress-management techniques, designed to be easily implemented, both by midwife and client. Participants will be invited to engage in practice of these techniques, throughout the presentation.
Learning Objectives:
Objective 1. Describe the emerging science on the effects of mindfulness and meditation practice for mental and physical health.
Objective 2. Apply basic practical skills of mindfulness and meditation, including methods for responding skillfully to physical pain, stress, and difficult emotions and thought patterns as well as integrating mindful awareness into ordinary daily activities.
Objective 3. Describe how to intentionally cultivate positive emotions such as gratitude, joy, kindness, compassion, equanimity, and forgiveness.
Objective 4. Describe how to effectively present this information to clients and encourage regular practice.
