Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing
In ReviewMind-Body Interventions During Pregnancy
Section snippets
Review of mind-body modalities used during pregnancy
In Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) transactional model of stress, anxiety is seen as an emotion that accompanies stress and can arise as a result of a mismatching of person and environment. When an individual’s appraisal of threat is not in balance with her resources or capacities for coping, anxiety is a common reaction. Anxiety may be triggered by an important life event such as pregnancy (DHHS, 1999) and may prompt learning new tools for coping.
In healthy women, mind-body modalities such as
Methods
Studies included in this review have the following design elements: they investigated a mind-body modality with adult pregnant women, were prospective in design, original research, contained quantitative data, were published in English in peer-reviewed journals, and contained a measured variable related to psychological stress. Psychological stress has been operationalized in perinatal research as state and trait anxiety, perceived stress, daily hassles, stressful life events, prenatal stress,
Results
Several categories of mind-body interventions emerged that investigated efficacy for stress reduction and relaxation in pregnant women. The results are organized by type of mind-body approach in Table 2. The three approaches were categorized as psychoeducational, relaxation, and yoga or meditation. There were no relevant studies on tai chi or qi gong. After reviewing biofeedback and hypnosis studies, they were excluded, as the focus was on labor management, and Smith, Collins, Cyna, and Crowther
Discussion
Data on mind-body interventions for prenatal stress and anxiety or for any perinatal outcomes are limited. The reviewed studies have multiple methodological limitations, particularly failure to use a random design with adequate placebo. Another limitation is that most of the studies used an inactive control group. Across these studies, variables were measured at different time points and conceptualization of the interventions differed. When stress and anxiety were measured, these variables were
Conclusions
There are limited data to support the efficacy of mind-body interventions for stress reduction during pregnancy. Studies that included progressive muscle relaxation, yoga, and meditation need to be replicated. Research on this phenomenon could contribute to our understanding of stress and anxiety during pregnancy, address how mind-body modalities influence perinatal outcomes, or even evaluate relief from common symptoms of pregnancy such as insomnia or back pain. Results from these types of
Acknowledgments
Supported by NIH, NINR grant F31-NR009328-01. The authors thank Drs. Kennedy, Weiss, and Yang.
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