Mindful with your baby for mothers of infants with (parental) stress in a non-clinical setting: a wait-list controlled pilot trial

Abstract

Background Because of the far-reaching negative consequences of high levels of (parental) stress for the mother, infant, the mother-infant relationship, and family functioning, psychological support for young mothers is important. Mindful with Your Baby is a mindfulness-based intervention, originally developed and evaluated in a clinical population of mothers with mental health issues and/or babies with regulation problems. The current pilot examines whether Mindful with Your Baby for mothers with symptoms of (parental) stress offered in a non-clinical setting is also effective and acceptable. Methods In this pilot waitlist-controlled trial, 17 mothers with infants (2–15 months) admitted themselves for a Mindful with Your Baby training in a non-clinical setting because of (parental) stress. Mindful with Your Baby was offered in groups of three to six mother-infant dyads and consisted of eight weekly 2-h sessions. Participants completed questionnaires on symptoms of parental stress, general stress, depression, anxiety, mindfulness and self-compassion at 8-week waitlist, pretest, posttest and 8-week follow-up. Results There were no training drop-outs, attendance rate was 92.5%, and the training was evaluated positively: all mothers (100%) felt they got something of lasting importance as a result of taking the training, and reported becoming more conscious as a parent, and 93% reported changing their lifestyle or parenting as a result of the training. Multilevel analyses showed no significant changes between waitlist and pretest. At posttest, a significant improvement occurred in all outcome measures compared to pretest, of moderate to large effect sizes. At follow-up, a significant improvement was seen compared to pretest in all outcomes except anxiety compared to pretest, of small to moderate effect sizes. Conclusions Mindful with Your Baby appears an acceptable and effective intervention for mothers with a baby who experience (parental) stress but who have not been referred to specialized mental health care. A low threshold access to Mindful with Your Baby in non-clinical settings could provide a timely and positive interference in (parental) stress.

Do Improvements in Maternal Mental Health Predict Improvements in Parenting? Mechanisms of the Mindful with Your Baby Training

“…Positive results were also shown regarding mindful parenting and other aspects of parenting as well as aspects of maternal (mental) health. These findings replicate earlier studies in which a combination of improvement in (mental) health outcomes and parenting outcomes were shown [58,62]. Several reviews on interventions for mothers, with a baby, who experience mental health problems (specifically depression) underscore the importance of focusing the treatment on both the depressive symptoms itself and the difficulties in parenting and the parent-child relationship, and conclude that most interventions are not effective in treating both [40][41][42][43].…”

“…In the follow-up session, the mothers are reminded of all the themes of the previous sessions. A table which summarises the main and secondary themes, the session practices, the home practices and readings of each session has been published in a previous study on Mindful with Your Baby [62].…”

“…A study in a mental health care setting yielded positive results on areas such as maternal well-being, internalising and externalising psychopathology, parenting confidence, self-reported maternal responsivity, and infant positive affectivity [58]. In a non-clinical setting, a positive effect was shown regarding symptoms of depression, anxiety, general stress, and parental stress [62]. In an observational study, in which mother-child interaction observations were coded, positive effects were shown on maternal acceptance of the child, maternal mind-mindedness, and child responsivity [63].…”

A Theoretical FRAMEWORK for the Development of Perinatal Period Mental Health Guidelines in Zimbabwe

“…Wellbeing advancement, unwellness counteraction, and instruction procedures revolve around re-establishing associations to cultural qualities, upgrading self-governance of women and their significant others [16]. This would spill to increasing participation in communal networking, reinforcing resistance to mental illness, expanding defensive factors, and diminishing danger factors [17].…”

The Impact of a Mindfulness App on Postnatal Distress

“…Within the literature reviewed, one study was located that investigated the effect of an 8-week mindful parenting intervention on levels of stress, depression and anxiety, using a pre-post design method. They assessed symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress via the DASS21 at pre-test, post-test and 8-week follow-up (Potharst et al, 2022 ). They found significant reductions in all outcome variables at both measurement points apart from anxiety at the 8-week follow-up.…”