The Science Behind Meditation and Prenatal Wellness
I love seeing science behind the benefits of meditation during pregnancy. Not only does it feel good once you get into the routine of it but I love reading the scientific proof behind these feels! It makes sense too when you think about it given that, in general, meditation brings on calming feelings and slows your busy mind down long enough to actually have a creative thought. It’s a moment to slow down .. to give to yourself with health benefits for you and baby!
What I love about this scientific study’s results is that it found a significant decrease in perceived stress scores, a significant decrease of blood pressure response to cold pressor test and a significant increase in heart rate variability in the test group (p< 0.05, significant)! This indicates that mindfulness meditation is a powerful regulator of the sympathetic nervous system. This means that the fight or flight response of the body is better regulated with meditation and can reduce the day-to-day perceived stress in pregnant women.
This reduction in stress due to meditation is exciting because some pregnancy complications like hypertension and preeclampsia have been strongly correlated with maternal stress. Stress can affect fetal development but there’s some peace of mind knowing meditation reduces stress!
