The Headspace Guide To … A Mindful Pregnancy (6 page)

The moment we open our minds and accept that we will face trials and tribulations, the tension actually slackens, like someone suddenly dropping the rope in a tug of war.

Anything that directly or indirectly affects the welfare of the baby, both before and after birth, deserves our scrutiny. We want to learn more. Look closer. Ensure we’re doing the proper things. Examine. Check and then double-check. It’s why mothers are extra careful about things like caffeine intake, checking the ingredients on food labels and the chemicals used in household products; and why we all analyse the safety records of toys, strollers, cots and car seats. The potential impact of every little thing demands our attention. Tell a smoker to give up smoking for their own good, and they may well struggle to feel the motivation. Tell a smoker to give up because it can harm the baby, and you watch them quit overnight. The fragility of the tiny beings we bring into the world, together with the immense responsibility, means that we all reconsider the way we lead our lives.

Within that context, the effectiveness of mindfulness warrants its own chapter, because this is not some fluffy concept or woolly belief system – it is a practice with life-changing benefits for us and our baby, as demonstrated by science. Indeed, the research and findings only serve to fortify the experiential feedback that can be found throughout this book, based on accounts from new parents.

Just to be clear, science isn’t endorsing mindfulness, it is simply catching up to that which has long been known. Indeed, the fact that I feel compelled to highlight the science here would undoubtedly cause mild amusement in the East, and in the monasteries where I trained. After all, mindfulness is something that has been experienced as a truth, not an idea or a theory, for millennia. That said, the data and conclusions that science brings to the table play an important role in inspiring and educating the world about the benefits of meditation and mindfulness.

Before going any further, I should warn you that this chapter contains the findings of clinical trials, so that we, as parents, are better educated about the impact that stress and anxiety can have on us and the children we bring into the world. Approached in the wrong way, this information could potentially leave us gibbering nervous wrecks, trying to anticipate the effects of every single move we make. Clearly, that is not the intention. One of the reasons you are reading this book is because you care, and that means not only caring for your baby, but also for yourself. None of the findings here are cause for alarm; the science is merely drawing our attention to certain data so that we can be aware of the potential ramifications, helping us to see the cause and effect of stress. View them as the equivalent of the ingredients labels on food items – they exist to improve our awareness, which, in turn, informs the choices we make.

I already mentioned in Chapter 2 that certain areas of the brain can grow thicker and stronger through the regular practise of meditation. This neuroplasticity – the ability of the brain to keep changing its structure or functionality in response to internal and external events – demonstrates how we literally get to reshape our mind. Headspace resident neuroscientist, Dr Claudia Aguirre, has a vivid analogy that better explains what happens.

Dr Aguirre paints the picture of a mini-cityscape in which motorists (the neurons making up the grey matter) drive on highways (white matter), overseen by city planners (the brain’s support structures). At all times, things are constantly changing and flowing. When we meditate, traffic shifts direction, meaning more motorists (neurons), which leads to the building of more roads – i.e. new neural pathways. Consequently, traffic flow changes, moving into different areas and opening up new posibilities. And so it is with the mind – the neural landscape changes and our thoughts find alternative, better routes.

A Harvard study in 2011 analysing the before-and-after MRI images of sixteen people who hadn’t previously meditated found dramatic changes in participants after they attended a mindfulness programme. We’re not talking about the brains of long-term monks and nuns in Tibet here; we’re talking about the average Joe and Joanna who meditated for just eight weeks. ‘Practitioners have long claimed that meditation provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day,’ wrote one of the authors, Sara Lazar, a professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. ‘This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are relaxing.’

The same study went on: ‘A large body of research has established the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions in reducing … anxiety, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders and chronic pain, as well as improving wellbeing and quality of life.’

These findings are consistent with what is now a substantial body of scientific research. The message is clear: we have the internal tools to build mental resiliency. Every time we sit to meditate, we can enhance cerebral blood flow and renew cells in specific regions, which may underlie the promotion of positive emotions associated with good moods. Another interesting benefit is the reduction in cravings, and I’m not only talking about those that send expectant mums into the larder at two o’clock in the morning. ‘Craving’ is bound up in feelings of expectation and reward, and there may well be occasions, before and after birth, when you want things to be different (craving your old life/your old body/independence/peace and quiet, etc.). The emerging neuroscience suggests that mindfulness can dampen brain activity in those areas associated with craving, so the more we train the mind to loosen the shackles of want and desire, the more at ease we’re likely to feel.

But it’s not just the brain that responds to meditation, it’s our genes, too. A 2013 genomic study – again, at Harvard – demonstrated how eliciting relaxation with just
one session
created a ‘rapid change’ in genes linked to inflammation and stress-related pathways and even the maintenance of telomeres – the caps at the end of each strand of DNA. So imagine that your genes are a light switch: when you meditate, genes that protect our DNA are turned ‘on’, and genes that promote inflammation and stress are turned ‘off’. Obviously, the best effects are seen with a consistent regular practice, even if we don’t yet know how long these ‘rapid’ changes last.

While mindfulness can dramatically change the way you feel, its most fascinating impact is that which can’t be seen – the laying down of new neural pathways in the brain and the turning on and off of our genes. Taken together, all these mental and physiological alterations conspire to induce more calm – which brings us to the real heart of the matter …

Everyone looks forward to that magical moment when mothers and partners get to truly connect with their new son or daughter; able to see and hold the little bundle of joy they have waited so long to meet. Sure, that feeling may not be immediate for all, but when it does happen, the surge of love is quite overwhelming. However, let’s rewind the tape and go back to being pregnant, a time when, for many, a connection with the unborn baby isn’t as strong or isn’t felt at all. Yes, the baby most definitely makes its presence known and triggers different physical sensations, but for many women it’s hard to find ways to relate to their offspring in utero.

That’s where the practice of mindfulness comes in. Our thoughts and the emotional environment we create can actually begin to have a significant influence on our relationship with the baby – even when he or she is still in the womb. In the same way that these tiny beings feed off a mother’s nutrients, they are also impacted by a mother’s state of calm or otherwise. How can they not be? Only skin and a layer of muscle wall separate them from the outside world. They are living human beings tucked away in a cocoon, detecting our every reaction.

Although there is a widely held belief that a child’s learning only truly kicks in once they are born, there’s plenty of science to suggest otherwise. In 2013, a study by researchers from the University of Helsinki asked expectant mothers to place headphones on their bellies and play non-native sounds, interspersed with pieces of classical music or children’s melodies. By the time of childbirth, these recordings had been played thousands of times, and the findings showed ‘enhanced brain activity’ among those babies who responded to the same sounds they had heard in utero. This implies that certain learning and memory capacities do exist in the foetus, the study concluding that ‘prenatal experiences have a remarkable influence on the brain’. This research demonstrates that sound-processing in the brain is certainly active in the third trimester, and that sound carries into the womb. ‘If you put your hand over your mouth and speak,’ said the university’s neuroscientist Eino Partanen, ‘then that’s very similar to the situation the foetus is in.’

When Lucinda was six months pregnant, and I was away with work, she would lie on the sofa, with headphones on her belly, playing Headspace’s Take10 programme – not only was Harley listening to guided meditations before being born, he was growing accustomed to his dad’s voice, too! I wouldn’t dissuade anyone from playing meditation to their ‘bumps’ two or three times a day. Not because I believe the baby is going to sit in an upright position and focus on his/her breaths, but because of the calming, soothing feeling this activity tends to create.

If the mind’s tendency leans towards negative thinking – with thoughts spinning into worry, anxiety or fear – the body will respond, creating the ‘stress hormone’ cortisol. Increased cortisol levels not only lead to impaired cognitive performance, but they amp up the body, creating tension in the muscles, and leaving us in a state of ‘fight or flight’. If a mother is sweating cortisol or tied up in knots on the inside, it’s not as if the baby can take five, leave the room, shut the door and wait for her to calm down.

What happens, as Dr Aguirre explains, is that cortisol is released from the mother’s adrenal glands, sending a signal to the placenta that the external world is all stressed out; this, in turn, triggers a matching response within the embryo which, as an autonomous unit with its own DNA make-up, generates its own stress hormone.

It might be difficult at first for expectant parents to grasp that nervous, anxious or depressed energy can be transferred within the womb. But it is not really such a big leap in imagination. Think back to when you were last in a room with someone who felt really angry – how did that feel? Probably not pleasant – and that’s just with someone external, who is simply in the same room, whereas the baby is part of you. There is enough research out there to suggest that if the mother gets consistently stressed or anxious, the child can then have a hard time regulating its own emotions and anxieties later in life. Everything we experience, they experience – most especially the stress.

Tiffany Field, a leading researcher in this area, published a landmark paper in 2004 which showed that ‘newborns of mothers with depressive symptoms had higher cortisol levels and lower dopamine and serotonin levels, thus mimicking their mothers’ prenatal levels’.

In 2011, Field built on this earlier paper, saying that such levels of cortisol were also associated with a baby’s low birth weight, reduced responsiveness to stimulation, disorganised sleep and temperament difficulties. Dr Amersi concurs, adding that stress also raises blood pressure, heightening the risk of pre-eclampsia, miscarriage and complications during labour.

High-pressured mothers tend to have more active and irritable babies, and stress contributes to that make-up as much as a bad diet and toxins. Unsurprisingly, more than 50 per cent of women experience significant anxiety during pregnancy. If you are one of them, then I appreciate that ‘not worrying’ is a challenge, but this is why you are exploring mindfulness – to find an effective coping mechanism – and this is a unique window of opportunity to positively impact your baby’s developing neural pathways and nervous system.

I can’t think of a better support system than the one you can give yourself. Neither can Dr Amersi: ‘Meditation is the safest and most effective way to non-pharmacologically reduce anxiety and stress, thereby restoring and promoting the immune system of both the mother and her baby,’ she says.

The danger in reading all this is that your mind, perhaps already predisposed to worry, could potentially reach a new level of anxiety, thinking back to every little incident of emotion. Just to be clear, what we’re talking about are
tendencies
as opposed to one-off events. Of course you will experience a welter of emotions during pregnancy, but the point is that you do not have to be taken hostage, controlled or overwhelmed by them. Mindfulness will reduce the stress response in the body, and it will stabilise the heart rate. You will, with practice, learn to step back from it all, and let go. So please be reassured that there is no cause for alarm.

The key message here is that a baby’s behaviour doesn’t begin at birth, but in utero – and that is an important awareness to have. No one can change the biology. No one can prevent the fact that, when our babies are in the womb, they are swimming in a cocktail of hormones that match their mother’s. So the foetus requires reassurance, to know it is safe and protected. This, according to Dr Amersi, is essential ‘because it sets the temperament of calmness versus anxiety traits in the baby’.

With this in mind and, assuming we have the ability to create the most conducive conditions possible for the baby by mixing our own unique cocktail, we might prefer to add less cortisol and adrenaline, and a little more oxytocin instead. Often referred to as the ‘bonding hormone’, oxytocin is capable of stimulating feelings of relaxation and bliss in both body and mind. In creating a state of relaxation, a regular meditation practice leads to the body generating more oxytocin. So as the bonding hormone elevates, the stress hormone decreases. Not only that, meditation also promotes the production of endorphins, the so-called ‘pleasure hormone’, which helps to relieve pain, so why not add some of that into the mix too? These are very real things we can do for our baby before he or she is born.