Mind-Body Techniques in Pregnancy and Postpartum

Esteban A Oyarzabal1, Barbara Seuferling2, Shaweta Babbar3

  • 1Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Maternal stress can perturb physiology and psychiatric health leading to adverse outcomes. This review investigates the effectiveness of several mind-body therapies-namely biofeedback, progressive muscle relaxation, guided imagery, tai chi, and yoga-as interventions in reducing maternal stress and other pregnancy-related conditions. Through randomized trials, these techniques have shown promising benefits for reducing pain, high blood pressure, stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, labor pain and outcomes, and postpartum mood disturbances. As these interventions are easy to implement, low cost, and safe to perform in pregnancy, they should be considered as alternative, nonpharmaceutical interventions to use during pregnancy and postpartum care.

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