Background
cognitive, affective, and somatic symptoms, depression, abnormal uterine artery blood-flow
EVENTS, PND, INFLAMMATORY RESPONSE
Pregnancy and childbirth are significant events in many women’s lives, that often entail abrupt lifestyle changes in addition to hormonal and physiological alterations [Exposure to stressful life events [Apart from an array of well documented cognitive, affective, and somatic symptoms (WHO [Importantly, reduced HRV in pregnant women with depression has been related to abnormal uterine artery blood-flow and lower infant birth weight [During pregnancy, the woman’s body undergoes extensive changes in immune system adaptation and inflammatory response, which can be detected through blood samples [In recent decades, the use of Mindfulness Based Interventions (MBIs) in clinical settings, and research regarding their effects on various health-related outcomes have increased rapidly. Mindfulness practice was initially secularized and brought to clinical settings by Jon Kabat-Zinn with the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program (MBSR) [Some of the MBIs have been tailored specifically for pregnant women and their partners and assessed in terms of a variety of outcomes in iterated pilot studies, with only a few with a randomised controlled design and an active control condition [Some studies have documented physiological effects of mindfulness on immune function [In summary, MBIs may potentially have an effect on HRV and inflammatory biomarkers, and our previous study showed significant effects on PND and perceived stress. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the effects of a Mindfulness Based Childbirth and Parenting (MBCP) intervention on HRV and serum inflammatory marker levels, through an RCT study design with an active control group. The active control consisted of a Lamaze childbirth program. This method has been developed initially by Dr Fernand Lamaze [The study hypotheses were that: 1) the intervention group, in comparison with the active control group, will have a larger increase of HRV; and 2) the intervention group, in comparison with the active control group, will have a smaller increase in serum inflammatory markers.