​​Program Background​

​

When we hear about preconception preparation, it is usually mainly about preparing our body for pregnancy and optimising health 3-6 months before conception, for instance by taking daily folic acid, eating a nutrient-dense diet, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, managing stress, and stopping drinking alcohol and smoking. While these recommendations are important, this is not the whole picture. There is a lot missing. The medical model permeates preconception preparation by inviting couples to schedule a preconception checkup to review medications, update immunisation, and manage chronic conditions. But how about the spiritual side, the essence of being human? About mindfulness practice, nurturing emotions and the relationship and attunement with the partner, connecting with the soul of the child and preparing for a relationship before conception through specific contemplative practices?

 

In many Asian and African cultures rituals, ceremonies, and beliefs concerning the period preceding birth, even conception, sustain fertility and sow the seeds for birth. These cultures consider the child to be born the first time they are thought in their mother’s mind, thus before conception. Many tribal cultures consider the birthdate of a child not from when they are born, not from when they are conceived, but from the day that the child’s spirit was heard by their mother. In fact, when a couple wishes to conceive a baby, the woman goes out into the bush or the forest depending on where she lives, and sits alone under a tree. Here she waits and listens until she hears the song (soul) of the child to whom she will give birth. Conception occurs, in the eyes of these people, at the moment that this song is heard, and the soul of the child is visualised. The mother then teaches the song to the father, so that the child’s spirit is called during lovemaking. Successful conception is then followed by dances and ceremonies. The Himba women and men I visited with my husband and then young daughters kindly simulated a dance for us. Isn't it

a lovely story? Yet, this contemplative nourishing space is almost never part of a preconception or fertility problems education and healing program.  

 

Unlike Westerners, Himba and other indigenous people believe themselves to be conceived as soon as they are wanted, before the sacred act of intercourse that creates them. If conception follows successfully, this is evidence that these spiritual beliefs and visual image of the baby enhance the couple’s fertility, thus affect them physiologically. Carl Jung, who lived with a tribe in Kenia, understood many things about human psyche by witnessing their serious ceremonies. He explains that “the ancient view held that the soul was essentially the life of the body, the life breath or a kind of force which assumed special and corporal form at the moment of conception, or during pregnancy, or at birth, and left the dying body again after the final breath (Sabini, 2002). Conception and birth are viewed as a celebration of life. The whole Himba community set up ceremonies and dances to celebrate conception. During pregnancy, the mother sings the same song to the baby in the womb, reassuring the baby of their place in the natural world. The baby is therefore introduced to the natural world at the very beginning of life and will continue to nourish their relationship with Earth and each of Her elements. The pregnant mother has a sense of relationship with her child and is very focused on the life growing within her. She senses how the child is affected by her actions and thoughts and behaves accordingly. The Himba baby is perceived as a sentient being, able to send cues with his motions, memorise the song they have been sung to and recognise it after birth and use it as a familiar element to attach to. When the child is born the mother is already in a reciprocal relationship with him/her. Indigenous mothers teach us that maternal consciousness is about practice and our modern culture is restricting the opportunities of practicing it. 

​

These nurturing wisdom practices and beliefs have been supporting and guiding women and mothers from before conception, throughout pregnancy, birth and beyond for 99.9% of humanity existence. They have been passed on from generation to generation as a matter of routine for millennia. They show that mental representations enhance maternal consciousness of the child and can physiologically affect conception, pregnancy, birth, and parenting. Indigenous and Aboriginal cultures have been aware of the influence of the conception environment for millennia. Prior to conceiving a child, couples set ceremonies to purify their minds and bodies. This is evidence that spirituality is an essential human need, especially in the preparation of conception, either with or without fertility problems, leading to the creation and development of a child. Our original worldview and wisdom practices will remind us of who we really are, so we can begin to reflect on some of the different ways of being in the world. Australian academic David Tacey (2004) writes that patients tend to express to their therapist their sense that a lack of spiritual meaning has something to do with their illness.

​

If nowadays a large number of pregnancies and births incur complications, this is partly because that communal wisdom and imagination, those traditional beliefs which were passed on, and which sustained a mother’s confidence and trust, have been replaced by unnecessary fears, ambivalent advice from Internet and books and by often-unnecessary medical interventions. These interfere with the energy fields and communication system between mother and baby, thus with the natural psychobiological process of conception, pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and the mother-baby synchronic bonding process.  We need to promote a new culture leading to an awakening of consciousness and embodiment. We need to take repossession of the communicability of wisdom as well as resonating scientific knowledge, not merely through advice and tip, or through individual therapy, but through the practice of shared experiences with other humans as well as with a cooperative natural world. We have dismissed the importance of human relations and their embodiment, including the earliest relationship with the unborn baby, forgetting that they impact on our health. In traditional societies women pass their knowledge onto other younger women through practice and human-to-human interactions , preparing them for fulfilling pregnancy, birth, and parenting. 

​

A Prenatal Mindfulness- Relationship-Based (PMRB) Approach

​

Mindful conception is an educational and healing integrative program and approach specifically designed for couples who are preparing for welcoming their baby into their life, including those who are experiencing fertility problems and the psychological consequences of miscarriage. I teach strategies and provide a set of nurturing practices to enhance the couple's relationship and connection and create an environment for the baby to develop and thrive. These practices are based upon the principles of mindfulness, revised attachment theory, indigenous and traditional wisdom and the resonating science, awareness of the unborn baby as a sentient being capable to respond and initiate interactions and develop a relationship, and prenatal psychology. Although the impact of the couple's health, including mental health, on a child development begins before conception, research has only recently gained momentum and information is not mainstream yet. Growing evidence suggests that high levels of stress, anxiety and depression, and unresolved trauma during pregnancy can affect the baby's development (just like nutritional deficiencies and toxic substances) and be precursors of  subsequent health problems in the mother as well as the child. Imagine mitigating the risk for later psychological disorders and health issues far before the conception of a baby. What we need for our fertility is what we need for attuned parenting, and these set of abilities are fostered by mindfulness practice with a focus on the prenatal relationship and integrative approach to health and healing. The seeds for the development and health of our children are sown before they are born, before they are conceived. Our biology is our biography, because so much of our stories, experiences and beliefs are stored at the cellular level and affect conception, just as nutrients contributes to cellular, organic, and systemic health. We need our consciousness to impact our body memory and to induce changes in our brain's circuits we need consistent practice for at least 8-12 weeks. So, there is no better investment a couple, family, society, and humanity can make than honouring the crucial sacred period from before conception, throughout pregnancy, birth and beyond.

 

Fertility and miscarriage: addressing the grief of unrealised dreams

 

The practice of mindfulness has been shown to increase emotional regulation while decreasing levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. Described as present-moment non-judgemental awareness, mindfulness has received significant empirical attention over the past three decades and has recently been theorised in the West as an important contributing factor in self-development, relationships, attachment, and health and wellbeing. Infertility can have a significant impact on a woman's, man's and couple's health and wellbeing. It can be overwhelming and rob them of hope, happiness, self-worth, and trust in their own body. It can cause daily grief of an unrealised deeply pursued dream, anxiety, and depression. It is important to address these emotions before conception for the individual and couple's health and that of the conceived, since the way our children are conceived, birthed, and raised has a significant impact on the adults they become. My PMRB program, integrated with indigenous and traditional wisdom, prenatal psychology, epigenetics, neuroscience, quantum physics and heart resonance education, provides strategies to:

​

• Assess the stress and post-traumatic impact of infertility, miscarriage, or still birth.

• Help the individual and couple process infertility and reproductive loss such as miscarriage and stillbirth through mindfulness and compassion/self-compassion practices and the contribution of prenatal psychology and ancient and traditional practices across the world.

• Address the impact that infertility and loss have on the couple's relationship.

• Foster a sense of interconnection and spirituality which addresses the chronic stress, withdrawal, isolation and insecure attachment that can drive a couple apart.

• Processing still birth through a story that has guided and healed mothers' grief for thousands of years.

• How, through the act of consciously conceiving our children, we can birth loving beings and bring a child to their original full potential, a vital step towards creating a world that is filled with loving adults, thus creating a healthy world for all

• How to nourish and clear the body, mind, and spirit of toxicity, old patterning and blockages and emotions.

• How to connect with the soul of the child through powerful practices drown from cultures across the world.

• Explore the role of ceremonies, rituals, and beliefs in supporting healthy holistic conception and birth.  

 

Immagine a world in which love and nurture is the blue print of each human being, using the art and power of intention and manifestation, and intentional healing to clear the vessel and conceive through love.

​

The couple and group educational and healing sessions are for all those considering the conception journey as well as healthcare practitioners such as doulas, midwives, life coaches, psychologists, psychotherapists, and anyone working in the field of reproductive health and fertility. I will provide these healthcare practitioneers with tools to help their clients process the psychological impact of infertility, miscarriage and stillbirth and insights on how these experiences threaten a client's core belief system, self-esteem, trust in the body wisdom and identity and the bond with their partners. You can register for a couple session anytime, considering my Australian time zone (Brisbane). Please contact me and we will arrange a time together. For the group 8-week PMRB program, check here when there is one running.

 

Wishing you an inspiring educational and healing journey. Education and consciousness are the first steps to healing and are both simultaneously enhanced by healing.  

​​