Culturally Responsive Mindfulness Interventions for Perinatal African-American Women: A Call for Action

Perinatal African-American women experience perinatal health disparities with increased levels of stress. Stress includes exposure to racism and sexism for African-American women. African-American perinatal women need a culturally tailored intervention to decrease stress and improve health. Culturally tailored interventions are more effective than non-adapted interventions. Mindfulness can reduce stress and improve health and may be an ideal intervention to culturally modify for perinatal African-American women. We will first discuss stress and its impact on perinatal health. Second, we will present stress and intersectionality for perinatal African-American women. Third, we will describe the existing research on mindfulness and its proposed benefits for perinatal women. Finally, we will highlight culturally responsive mindfulness approaches and how these may be uniquely suited to target and mitigate perinatal stress outcomes and promote healthy behaviors.