It is well documented that the perinatal period (the time from pregnancy until the first year of a child’s life) is a crucial window of opportunity for foetal and infant development. Evidence suggests that parental psychopathology can have harmful consequences for the parent-infant relationship, parents’ relationship, infant’s development and later mental-health into adulthood. The focus of this thesis will be on exploring mindfulness as one possible non-pharmacological intervention that could benefit parents’ emotional well-being during the perinatal period. Chapter one contains a mixed methods systematic review of 14 published studies of Mindfulness and Acceptance Based Interventions (MABIs) during the perinatal period, for mothers experiencing anxiety and stress. The synthesis of quantitative and qualitative results were integrated and demonstrated tentative findings that MABIs can reduce anxiety, pregnancy anxiety and stress for mothers, whilst increasing self-efficacy and mindfulness. Qualitative themes discussed propose possible explanations for these findings. Methodological limitations are discussed in line with implications for clinical practice and recommendations for future research. Chapter two explores mothers’ and fathers’ experiences of mindfulness during parenting, one year following their attendance on the Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting programme (MBCP). Ten semi-structured interviews gathered rich, in-depth, idiosyncratic accounts which were subject to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Two superordinate themes emerged from the data, ‘Getting closer to really living’ and ‘Greater connectedness and attunement’. Finally, Chapter 3 provides a reflective account of the author’s lived experience of the parallels between her own research journey and personal experience of becoming a mother. It addresses the author’s epistemological position and the researcher’s influence on the research process.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:678724 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Sedgfield, Amber |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/76034/ |
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