THE PRE- & PERINATAL MINDFULNESS RELATIONSHIP-BASED (PMRB) PROGRAM

​​Program Background

​

In our recent history, we have been witnessing an increasing mechanisation and medicalisation of birth and alarming rise of maternal and infant mortality and mental health disorders during pregnancy and postpartum. There is considerable evidence that maternal (and paternal) wellbeing influence both her/his relationship with the baby and the baby development and health during pregnancy and in the early postpartum period well into adult life. This early relationship lays the foundation for later child development and thriving. This highlights an urgent need for the resurgence of preconception, prenatal, and perinatal nurturing practices within our indigenous cousins' wisdom and life ways. These practices have guided and supported mothers, babies, and families for millennia, fostering health and wellbeing and allowing  us to evolve and become resilient, empathic, and cooperative human beings.  When basic needs are met in early life and throughout life within a supportive community and in cooperation with Nature's ways, which has been the norm in indigenous cultures for 99% of humanity existence,  a cooperative compassionate human nature is sustained. Attunement, emotional regulation, and interconnectedness, fundamental for mothers and children to thrive and for mothers to be the leaders of healthcare and supported community, develop as a matter of routine. These human capacities are cultivated in early life and passed on undisturbed through generations, thus ancestral wisdom is maintained, and cultural and ecological stability are secured. In our post-modern society, knowledge is fragmented and transmitted through electronic devices rather than human wisdom holders and their action. Becoming parents often receive, virtually, conflicting messages. As more of our daily experience goes mediated and buffered through screens, we are losing visceral proximity, seeing, feeling and touching the world directly, and real-life connections with others. We are losing the embodiment of human condition. When these happen to pregnant mothers, we can wonder what her unborn and newborn baby is losing and the life-long effects on their development. Disembodiment, loneliness and isolation are flueling a global mental crisis just as climate emergencies hasten hunger and mass displacement of people and violence, extremism, and armed conflict are on the rise, resulting in suffering and loss of life. I see at the roots of all these problems a crisis of nurturing relationship beginning in the womb and later expanding into our ways of relating to other human fellows and Mother Nature. To recover our humanity and come back to the real world inhabited by compassionate humans connected to the land, the community and natural environment, we must find ways to cultivate and amplify wellbeing, compassion, and interconnectedness, as early as before conception and during pregnancy. This is the most crucial period when our earliest experiences are recorded not only in our deepest most ancient brain, the brainstem, but also in our body, forming our implicit memory. This is why it is of utmost importance to support mothers and families during this period as a community, so that they are in the optimal mind-body-soul state to provide undisturbed nurture to their baby development. We can learn from indigenous cultures, like the Himba I visited, how collective wisdom, their sense of belonging to a place, to very element of Nature, to their community and to themselves, have sustained conception, uncomplicated pregnancy, childbirth, motherhood, and secure attachment for millennia. The intergenerational transmission of this collective sustainable wisdom has conferred health and prosocial virtues such as connectedness, cooperation, and resilience just as unresolved developmental trauma induced by modernised early life non-nursing practices and isolation is passed on to next generations. Reclaiming our indigenous origins and their mindful way of life, being and doing seems to be the only pathway to break this cycle. This is why I developed a prenatal and perinatal program that integrates mindfulness and ancestral nurturing wisdom practices and reaffirming science as a model of life sustainability on our planet.          

 

Description of the PMRB Program

 

The 9-week Pre-Perinatal Mindfulness- Relationship-Based  (PMRB) program has been especially designed for pregnancy and the early postnatal period but can also include the preconception period. To induce changes in our brains, bodies and nervous systems we need consistent practice for at least eight weeks. The primary aim is to create a holding space for healing, self-development, use of inner wisdom resources and emotional connection during pregnancy and the postpartum period. These are times of significant transitions for women and couples, with changes in maternal physical and mental health that can involve the partner and other family members. Each weekly session last two hours. Eight classes are taught during pregnancy and one 10-12 weeks after birth, which includes sharing of birth stories. The program aims to mitigate the risk for prenatal and postnatal psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, and stress, birth complications, premature birth, and mother-baby relationship difficulties, often a consequence of the many pressing challenges we face today or unresolved trauma. Each session/module includes a topic discussion followed by 20-minute formal mindfulness meditation with a focus on the emotional connection with the unborn baby.

 

The PMRB program is not a theoretical course - it is a transformative thriving experience not just for you, the becoming parent, but for your family, your developing child and the next generations. The program has been piloted in my PhD and led to improved maternal mindfulness, interoception, mental health (reduced depression, anxiety, and stress), and mother-baby relationship during pregnancy and postpartum. It has been registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR).https://www.anzctr.org.au/ACTRN12623000679684.aspx. The findings of the quantitative and qualitative studies have been published in two articles in peer-review journals and the program seminal description is in my latest book Cultivating Mindfulness to Raise Children Who Thrive: Why Human Connection from Before Birth Matters (links below).  

 

     Key components of the PMRB program are:

​

• Introduction of scientific findings of epigenetics, neuroscience, quantum physics, mindfulness, perinatal mental health, developmental psychology including the prenatal period, and integration with indigenous and traditional wisdom. 

• The practice of mindfulness and interoception and fostered set of parenting skills, which can also reduce stress, anxiety, and depression and relationship difficulties and thus enhance wellbeing during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum. 

• Emotional connection. The focus on the mother/father-baby relationship from a new body-mind-soul perspective based on the mother's embodied awareness of the unborn baby as a conscious sentient being, capable of engagement in bidirectional interactions

• Prenatal psychology education. This leads to a new concept of prenatal relationship and attachment based on shifting attention from 'when the baby arrives' to 'the baby is already here and I am connected to my baby'. 

• Breathing exercises and meditation, mindful movements and dance, mind-body pain and stress coping strategies for childbirth and awareness skills for coping with daily life stress.

• Perinatal education, including prenate/infant development and psychobiological needs, psychobiological processes of pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum adjustment, breastfeeding and breastfeeding self-efficacy.

• Sensorimotor modulation techniques using maternal/paternal touch, vocalisation, singing, imagination, reflective function, and recognising and responding to the baby's movements in the womb to create communications with the baby. 

• Group experience with reflective discussions around couple and family dynamics and any rising issues.

• Home practice consisting of daily mindfulness meditation, everyday mindful awareness, reading "Letters from the Womb", and sensory-based activities, each with a focus on the emotional connection with the baby and journalling.  

 

An essential part of the program are the self-administered home practices focused on sensorimotor interactions - stroking the pregnant belly where the baby's movements and cues are felt, singing to the baby, reading out Letters from the Womb booklet, and writing in a baby journal: all aimed to enhance maternal (and paternal) sensory and baby awareness, present-moment awareness, receptive attention, nonreactive acceptance, sensitivity and maternal reflective function, mother-prenate engagement, nervous system co-regulation and to have calming effects. There is growing evidence that use of sensory-based activities with people with mental disorders may promote development of self-regulatory strategies and improve wellbeing.  Mothers' use of sensory-based activities (gently massaging pregnant belly and later the newborn baby, singing to the unborn baby, and writing in baby journal) have revealed to have calming effects thus reducing stress levels, enhance attention, and promote maternal-baby relationship during pregnancy. Participants will also learn how to apply the practice of mindfulness to discomforts during pregnancy, labour pain and early parenting to have a fulfilling profound experience of birth and beyond. These are some of the core competencies of mindfulness combined to pre- and perinatal psychology education, aimed to promote wellbeing in mothers, infants and families and mitigate the risk of trauma and psychological disorders after birth and the the postnatal period and their effects on subsequent generations.

​

Detailed Module Breakdown

​

Module 1: Foundational theories, present moment awareness practice, neuroplasticity, 

                 epigenetics, quantum physics, prenatal memory, intentionality, allowing pace down.

                 Body scan and baby connect + enquiry

                 Home practice: self-guided meditation, journalling, 'connect with the baby' exercises,

                 reading "Letter from the Womb".

Module 2: Everything is mindfulness, enquiry and discussion of home practice, Stop Look Listen                          practice, how perception shapes experience, mindfulness of breathing to regulate                  the nervous system and return to inner peace, learning non-judgement, ease, gentleness,                        receptivity allowing.

                 Mindfulness of breathing and baby connect practices

                 Home practice

Module 3: Discovering embodiment and posture and gesture language, stress and how it affects us,  

                 awareness of feelings, emotions and mind-states, mindful listening/bringing awareness to l                  listening, the prenatal embodied relationship and how it influences labour and a fulfilling                    birth

                 Mindfulness of breathing/baby connect + enquiry, mindful movement + walking, improving

                 stress coping strategies

                 Home practice

Module 4: Learning acceptance and emotional availability, heart resonance and heart coherence, 

                 changing our relationship to feelings and emotions, reducing stress, letting go of                                    conditioned habits of reactivity, trusting inner resources and the process of pregnancy,                          birth, and the baby, building new neural pathways to build new life habits, awareness of                      breath, body, and baby, enquiring into mindful eating and sitting practice, cultivating

                 nourishing emotions for the partner and the baby.

                 Engaging in four practices 1) mindfulness of breathing 2) mindfulness eating 3) mindfulness

                 of feelings and 4) mindful sharing.

                 Home practice

Module 5: Compassion, self-Compassion, self-love and intentionality, cultivating kindness and love 

                 towards the self, the womb, the baby, the partner and others, guided sitting meditation to                    recognise, allow, and embrace to bring awareness to difficult emotions and taking care of                      them, the baby in the embodied mind, mindful sharing with the group.

                 Home practice

Module 6: Cultivating nurturing emotions and conscious communication in the womb, introducing

                 phrase-led (mantras) meditation as another way to support practice for awareness of breath

                 body, and baby and prenatal bonding as the lifeline, vocalisations, touch, and baby's                              movement awareness and interpretation, intentional coherence narrative, self- and

                 co-regulation, energy fields, the importance of the father, exploring the two-level model

                 of the mind (conscious and storehouse), exploring gratitude/conditions of happiness,

                 nourishing feelings of joy and gratitude, how mindfulness transforms mind as helpful                            corollary to the scientific model of neuroplasticity.

                 Home practice

Module 7: Letting go, practising mindfulness of the mind - noticing what is happening in the mind                      without reacting (letting thoughts and mind states pass through, awareness of the                                  impermanence of body and mind, e.g., experience is constantly changing and the self is not                  fixed and permanent, understanding that helps gracefully accept the changes brought by                      pregnancy, birth, the postpartum period and parenting, trusting the body wisdom, mindful                  lifestyle workshop, mindfulness of mind guided practice, enquiry.

                 Home practice

Module 8: A mindful pregnancy, birth and life, sharing, setting intention activity - reflective writing, 

                 how to sustain and nourish one's practice, continuing in the practice of kindness, 

                 practising poems, focusing towards the future - using the tools in labour, birth and beyond,

                 mindfulness and epigenetics - intergenerational impact, imprinting, implicit memory,                          bringing the group to a close facilitated by a group sharing, reflecting on the course                              experience as a group and what their aspiration is, keeping the mother-father-baby                                and community relationships strong.

                 Home practice

 Module 9: Group reunion at 10-12 weeks postpartum. Sharing birth stories and early motherhood                         and fatherhood experiences, joys, and challenges. Smaller and individual sessions can                             be offered if preferred, overview of the course and imagining the future.

 

Being a clinician, I also provide individual more in-depth support should this be needed, when there are deeper issues.

​

If you are searching for a place where to kindle your potential and well-being from the very beginning of your parenting journey and to nurture your child's development and health as well, click the link 'Contact' to connect with me.

​​

​

Sansone, A., Stapleton, P., Lawrence, Z., & Patching, P. (2024a). Participation in an online Prenatal Mindfulness-Relationship-Based (PMRB) program: Outcomes for maternal mindfulness, mental health, interoception, and mother-infant relationship during pregnancy and post-partum. OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine Journal, Special Issue: Mind-Body Approaches that are Revolutionising the Health Field, 9 (1), 1-43.

https://www.lidsen.com/journals/icm/icm-09-01-001

 

        Sansone, A., Stapleton, P., & Patching, P. (2024b). A qualitative investigation of a prenatal mindfulness relationship-based (PMRB) program to support maternal mental health and mother-baby relationship during pregnancy and post-birth. Mindfulness.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-024-02399-2#citeas 

​

Sansone, A. (2021). Cultivating Mindfulness to Raise Children Who Thrive: Why Human Connection from Before Birth Matters.

 https://www.routledge.com/Cultivating-Mindfulness-to-Raise-Children-Who-Thrive-Why-Human-Connection-from-Before-Birth-Matters/Sansone/p/book/9781138598270?srsltid=AfmBOopdEeYY8qtDfYr4A33Enux_Y9nSV5fTBaBr0FVpcINBMhjky_37

 

​