Foundations of
mindfulness-based
childbirth and parenting (MBCP)

An Online Introductory Course for Perinatal and
Mental Health Professionals 
 

   COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

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1. Describe how mindfulness meditation practice can benefit expectant parents for working with the stresses of pregnancy, labor, birth, and life, including how mindfulness skills can support and enhance healthy parent-infant attachment.

2. Describe how the experiences of formal and informal mindfulness practices might assist the brain’s executive functioning in disrupting, shifting, and refocusing unhelpful patterns, habits, and behaviors and reinforce more beneficial ways of being during childbirth and beyond.

3. List the four intentions of the Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting (MBCP) Program, and four elements of childbirth education that are part of MBCP.

4. Describe how mindfulness practices may facilitate a critical shift in perception regarding fear and pain in childbirth and assist in the decoupling of pain from suffering.

5. Describe the importance of mindfulness skills for working with the challenges of postpartum adjustment and early parenting stress, including the research indicating a significant reduction in postpartum depression for people who have participated in MBCP.

6. Describe the physical, psychological, and relational health benefits of MBCP as described in the research literature.