By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“research is beginning to show how mindfulness decreases depression and anxiety during pregnancy and boosts positive emotions.” – Mindful
Depression occurring after delivery of a baby is well known, documented and discussed. Less well known but equally likely is intense depression and anxiety during pregnancy. But, between 14% and 23% of women suffer from some form of depression and between 5% to 16% of women experience an anxiety disorder during pregnancy. Intense anxiety and depression are difficult to deal with under the best of conditions but in combinations with the stresses of pregnancy can turn what could be a joyous experience of creating a human life into a horrible torment.
Without treatment, prenatal depression can pose a serious threat to a mother-to-be, who may stop taking care of herself or, in extreme cases, become suicidal. This can even cause a woman to want to terminate her pregnancy. There are no statistics on the matter but it has been speculated that prenatal depression can lead to abortion. Anxiety during depression is also a serious threat being associated with more health problems during pregnancy, postpartum depression and anxiety, and premature birth.
Prenatal depression and anxiety are often not recognized or diagnosed. When it is, the typical treatment is drugs. But these drugs are often ineffective and frequently have troublesome side effects and may not be safe during pregnancy. So, alternative treatments are needed. Mindfulness training may be an answer. Meditation and yoga practices have been shown to help improve mental and physical health during pregnancy. This is encouraging as mindfulness training has many benefits and is completely safe, even during pregnancy. Hence, it is important to further research the potential beneficial effects of mindfulness training during pregnancy.
In today’s Research News article “The Effect of Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive Behavior Therapy on Depression and Anxiety among Pregnant Women: a Randomized Clinical Trial.” See:
or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5045953/
Yazdanimehr and colleagues investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness training for anxiety and depression during pregnancy. They recruited women who were 1 to 6 months pregnant and randomly assigned them to receive treatment as usual (control) or Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). Treatment was delivered over 8 weeks with 1.5 hour sessions occurring once a week. Depression and anxiety were measured before and after treatment and followed up 1 month later.
They found that the women receiving MBCT had significant improvements in both depression (46%) and anxiety (45%) at the end of treatment and at one month follow-up while there were no significant change for the control participants. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was developed specifically to treat depression. So, its effectiveness with the women is not surprising. It develops mindfulness and works to alter thought patterns to interpret experiences objectively without reference to negative or self-deprecating beliefs. This training is very effective for the relief of depression and also anxiety.
The fact that MBCT had such large effects with this vulnerable population is particularly encouraging. By relieving anxiety and depression in these pregnant women it should be helping to insure a better pregnancy, more full term births, and less problems postnatally. This suggests that MBCT could be a very valuable treatment and perhaps a recommended practice for pregnant women.
So, reduce anxiety and depression in pregnancy with mindfulness.
“Pregnancy and childbirth are great crash-courses for motherhood. For nine months, you are increasingly required to be in your body. Labor and childbirth may be the time when you are most in touch with your body-the most embodied any of us will ever be-though not necessarily in a very comfortable way. This doesn’t end when the baby is born. Learning how to be present and grounded in your body even in the face of discomfort is a great skill to cultivate now and for the rest of your life as a mother.” – Cassandra Vieten
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Yazdanimehr, R., Omidi, A., Sadat, Z., & Akbari, H. (2016). The Effect of Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive Behavior Therapy on Depression and Anxiety among Pregnant Women: a Randomized Clinical Trial. Journal of Caring Sciences, 5(3), 195–204. http://doi.org/10.15171/jcs.2016.021
Abstract
Introduction: Pregnancy can be associated with different psychological problems such as depression and anxiety. These problems are often neglected and left untreated. This study aimed to examine the effect of mindfulness-integrated cognitive behavior therapy on depression and anxiety among pregnant women.
Methods: A convenient sample of 80 pregnant women were selected. Participants were randomly allocated to either the experimental or the control groups. Participants in the experimental group received mindfulness-integrated cognitive behavior therapy while women in the control group only received routine prenatal care services. A demographic questionnaire, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and the Beck Anxiety Inventory were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics measures such as frequency, mean, and standard deviation as well as the repeated-measures analysis of variance test were used for data analysis.
Results: After the study intervention, the mean scores of anxiety and depression in the experimental group were significantly lower than the control group.
Conclusion: Mindfulness-integrated cognitive behavior therapy can significantly alleviate pregnant women’s depression and anxiety. So implementation of this method alongside with other prenatal care services is recommended.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5045953/