Meditation is an essential empowerment tool for helping you to deal with prenatal stress, depression and anxiety.
As you’re nearing the end of your pregnancy are you feeling a little more anxious about your baby’s birth or becoming a Mom? If you’ve given birth previously, perhaps you’re concerned about not having enough time to finish all you need to, before Baby arrives. All these worries are normal, but if they start to consume your thoughts and keep you awake at night you have prenatal stress and you need “help”! Why? Because research has revealed that high prenatal stress can lead to all sorts of health issues for you and your baby, and it can lead to mental, and behavioural disorders, later on in your child’s life.
Thankfully “help” is not necessarily a visit to another health practitioner with another bill to pay. “Help” is 10 minutes a day in the silence and comfort of your own space. “Help” is doing daily meditation.
Before you jump to dismiss the idea of meditation and listing all the reasons why you can’t do it, consider some of the scientifically proven benefits of one of the most natural ways of calming yourself and empowering yourself for the birth of your baby:
- Meditation lowers your heart rate and blood pressure.
- It also increases your endorphins and dopamine levels which helps you to handle pain better.
- Meditation is one of the best ways to lift a pregnant Mom out of a prenatal or postpartum depression as it boosts her serotonin levels and reduces cortisol (the fight or flight hormone).
- Regular meditation during pregnancy gives you a better chance of having a successful birth outcome with a healthy, more relaxed baby, who grows up being able to handle the toddler and teen years with less anxiety and behavioural disorders.
- And meditation connects you to your unborn child on a deep spiritual level.
Meditation can be done in many ways using different techniques, and researchers generally agree that the same benefits are achieved using any of the meditation techniques. Meditation teaches your mind to relax whilst focusing your attention on a mantra, movement or a breathing technique.
Beautiful Birth Magnificent Mom is a birth empowerment program in the form of an eBook. It teaches you how to do daily meditations as well as other essential empowering techniques for the birth of your baby. It’s available here for $20!
This excerpt is a sneak-peak of the Sensory Meditation in the BBMM empowerment eBook…
What meditation requires of you, is to take 10 minutes a day for yourself, in a quiet, non-distracting environment and follow these simple steps
- Find a quiet space, a place that you love being in. Preferably in your garden or in a place where you can observe nature.
- Sit comfortably in a cross-legged position on the floor or your yoga mat – this position helps Baby get into a good position for birthing. You may need to fold the end of your yoga mat and place it under your booty to raise your coccyx slightly to prevent any lower back pain.
- Switch off your cell phone.
- Start your meditation by taking a deep breath in. Feel the breath going in through your mouth, down into your chest, and moving deep into your lungs.
- Exhale, observing the breath as it moves up and out through your mouth.
- Repeat this breathing a few times, just observing your breath.
- Now observe each of your senses, individually as you breathe: what can you see (if your eyes are closed, consider the patterns you are seeing behind your closed lids); be aware of any environmental sounds you are hearing; smell any fragrances in the air; notice if there is a taste in your mouth; feel your body and be completely in the moment as you feel any movements your baby may be making in your belly. Hug your belly and greet your baby.
- With your eyes and mouth closed, allow yourself to just bask in the moment.
- Bring your attention to your breath as you observe the air being inhaled through your nose and moving through your body. Feel the air invigorating various organs and nourishing each essential part of your body.
- Exhale and observe the air moving up through your lungs and your throat. As you expel the air imagine all the stresses of the day or issues and concerns on your mind, being expelled with the air through your mouth.
- Feel every part of your body is refreshed and rejuvenated.
- Take another deep nourishing breath in and direct it to your baby. Imagine your baby being swaddled in this nurturing life-giving air. Exhale through your mouth and repeat this twice more.
- Slowly come to your awareness again and open your eyes.
- Take a few moments to adjust to the environment again and give thanks for the rejuvenation you feel in your body.
Meditation is simple and offers instant gratification as well as profound long-term benefits. As a pregnant woman, daily meditation will teach your mind to relax and get you connected to your body. So, when your midwife or care provider tells you to “listen to your body” you’ll understand what s/he means. Meditation will help to strengthen your pain threshold and allow you to focus better during labour. And it reduces your blood pressure and any high metabolic rates. One of the most important benefits of meditation is that it connects you to your baby on a very deep level, establishing that bond between you before your baby is born.
There are precious few things in life filled with true innocence, and even fewer with such opportunities for personal and Spiritual growth than this transformational time. “ ~ Marcie Macari.
