Abstract
Pregnancy is generally viewed as a positive experience, but
research has shown that prenatal maternal stress occurs in nearly
half of all pregnancies. Physical, psychological, and financial
challenges are often experienced and are compounded for African
American women from urban, low-income environments. The current
study focused on a mindfulness-based intervention for a group of
urban, low-income, pregnant African American women with the purpose
of improving maternal well-being and obstetric outcomes. This
randomized controlled pilot study involved a 2 X 4 mixed model
design, comparing treatment as usual (TxAU) with the Mindful
Motherhood intervention on several outcomes at pre-intervention,
post-intervention, one month post-intervention, and one month
postpartum. A total of 65 adult participants (31 TxAU, 34 Mindful
Motherhood) met the inclusion criteria and participated in the
study. Due to significant attrition in both assessments and
intervention participation, dose-effect analyses were employed to
test treatment effects on outcome variables with repeated measures
ANOVA and multiple linear regressions. Preliminary findings support
the efficacy of the Mindful Motherhood training in improving levels
of mindfulness, reducing reactive cortisol response, and reducing
pregnancy-related stress at post-intervention; improving
pregnancy-related positive experience and reducing depressive
symptoms at one month follow-up; and improving sustained attention
at one month postpartum. However, none of these effects appeared to
have lasting impact on the participants, and treatment did not
appear to impact stressful life events, perceived stress, baseline
salivary cortisol levels, coping strategies, or obstetric outcomes.
This pilot study is believed to be the first empirical research on
a mindfulness-based intervention with a group of urban, low-income,
pregnant African American women. These preliminary results support
the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions with this minority
population and encourage efforts to optimize recruitment and
retention of underprivileged participants to decrease health care
disparities.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
I. Introduction 1
II. Method 33
III. Results 48
IV. Discussion 58
V. References 72
VI. Figures 112
VII. Tables 117
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