Mindfulness for Pregnancy, Birth and Postpartum with Narelle Thomas
In our last Community Birth Circle, we had the privilege of listening to Springfield’s own Narelle Thomas on the topic of mindfulness and its relation to pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period.
Narelle Thomas lives out the principle of mindfulness as she speaks. She has a soft calming voice, doesn’t waste words, and carefully anunciates each syllable. She describes mindfulness simply: “a practice of tuning into your own awareness.” When I asked her why this is important, she responded: “It allows you to be present in the moment. It gives deeper clarity. It allows you to experience the richness of life and helps you to savor what is happening.”
It is worth repeating these benefits: deeper clarity, experiencing the richness of life, savoring what is happening right now. In a practical sense, for many of us, mindfulness could free us from thinking too much about the past, or from focusing too much on the future, from worrying about all the things we cannot control. Instead of feeling anxious, we just breathe into the moment.
The usefulness of this concept during pregnancy cannot be overstated. Pregnancy is a time of significant bodily and hormonal changes. The fluctuations of this nine month period can create stress and anxiety. At the same time, if we are present to it, pregnancy brings with it a deep desire to live healthfully and intentionally as we prepare to become a parent. A daily practice of deep breathing can be one of the ways to maximize this innate desire for self-improvement and health.
These benefits extend into labor and birth. As a midwife, I know that much of labor requires surrender to the present moment. We cannot control what is happening in labor – we give ourselves over to it, we trust our bodies, because there is no other way. When we practice mindfulness regularly, we learn how to be in the moment, breathe deeply, and surrender.
In the postpartum period and throughout parenting, there are many further opportunities to reap the benefits of a mindfulness practice. When we are nursing our baby, we might be breathing deeply (consciously) to help calm the baby. We may be whispering affirmations – gratitude for the life we hold, the family we have, the milk we are making, the sunshine outside. These affirmations are part of mindfulness – being in the moment. When we build up this practice, we can resort to it whenever tension or stress enters into our lives. When our children witness our mindfulness practice, they will learn how to do it as well.
How can we get into a practice of mindfulness? When Narelle explains her own process, she makes it sound so straightforward and obvious. “I began to think about, be more conscious, about decision-making in all aspects of my life: like what I was eating, what I was consuming as far as media, what time I was waking up, how I was spending my wakeful hours.” She described it as similar to devoting oneself to a martial art: physical, spiritual, and cultural tradition all wrapped in one. For her, the vegan diet was a core part of her mindful practice, but she states clearly that there are many different paths to mindfulness. Each person can start with something small and then build from there. She suggests starting with 5 minutes a day of deep, conscious breathing.
Narelle refers to herself as a Holistic Wellness Worker. She can be found on social media. A personal coach, she also collaborates with other community members to run retreats, workshops and a well-attended sister circle.