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Perinatal (During pregnancy) and Postnatal (New baby) stress has been found to have associations with adverse maternal and infant outcomes. 

Mindfulness training may offer a safe and acceptable strategy to support perinatal and postnatal mental health. Mental health is a serious illness that affects up to one in five expecting or new Mums and one in ten expecting or new Dads...It is never a failure or a weakness to ask/seek help. Sometimes post or prenatal mental illness can hit you like a tonne of bricks- out of the blue and for no reason. 

“Mindfulness exercises are ways of paying attention to the present moment, using techniques like meditation, breathing, and yoga. Training helps people to become more aware of their thoughts, feelings, and body sensations so that instead of being overwhelmed by them, they’re better able to manage them. Practising mindfulness can give more insight into emotions, boost attention and concentration, and improve relationships.”

“Mindfulness meditation has been shown to affect how the brain works and even its structure. People undertaking mindfulness training have shown increased activity in the area of the brain associated with positive emotion – the pre-frontal cortex – which is generally less active in people who are depressed.

Many studies have shown changes in brain wave activity during meditation and researchers have found that areas of the brain linked to emotional regulation are larger in people who have meditated regularly for five years or more. The evidence for different types of mindfulness is promising and research has grown in recent years.

(Mentalhealth.org.uk)

Mindfulness is a strategy and there are many resources out there for men or woman who might be struggling with their Mental health. PANDA (Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Association)  is one such organisation who can help: PANDA’s National Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Helpline

1300 726 306 9am – 7.30pm Mon – Fri (AEST/AEDT)

Or ask us a question via email at support@panda.org.au and one of the Helpline team members will get back to you during Helpline hours. Their website www.panda.org.au also has a wealth of information. 

Taking time to nurture your own development isn't selfish.  The well-being of mothers impacts the well-being of children and families in powerful and far reaching ways. We cannot pour from an empty cup.

Motherhood and stress, understanding your triggers and learning to respond rather than react. In mothering we are faced with screaming kids, tantrums, constant want for your attention, demands of breastfeeding etc. Mindfulness of emotions and getting clear on your values is extremely helpful to identify what is going on first rather than reacting. If we do become reactive to the external triggers/stress one of the ways to help yourself is to change the scenery. 

Karen Holmes explains it well in relation to Mums.

Mindfulness is probably the most scientifically investigated form of meditation to date, and to put it simply – it involves ‘training our attention’. Through this, we learn to focus on those things that are most useful and most helpful in our lives, allowing us to live more consciously and fully.

Given that a lot of mothering is done in automatic pilot mode, where we are literally multi-tasking the day away, living more mindfully can help us get on top of negative or worried thinking patterns – those pesky ‘what if…?’ scenarios.

A simple and quick mindfulness meditation:

Sit comfortably, preferably with your back firmly against a chair.

Place your feet on the floor and connect or root yourself with the floor.

Close your eyes, make sure your jaw is soft, and drop your chin a little.

Feel your breath and notice your belly rising and falling.

When you feel your thoughts wandering, simply notice this and return to the breath.

When you’re ready, lift your chin and open your eyes.

Bring your awareness slowly back to your surroundings.

Notice how you feel.

Breastfeeding is hard work and in those first few days, weeks and months you want to do all that you can to meet your baby’s needs.

Some woman struggle to get enough supply whilst others are like a leaking cow- it just keeps on coming! For some they are left on a solo journey to try and navigate their way through the jungle of breastfeeding.

The BREASTFEEDING ASSOCIATION offered the below advice which we found beneficial. Remember there are also lactation consultants that are only just a phone call away.

How to make more breastmilk: Demand = Supply

To build your breastmilk supply, the following ideas may help.

• Provided that your baby is correctly attached, you will find that the quickest and most successful way to boost your supply is to breastfeed more often. Offer a breastfeed every 2–3 hours during the day, for a few days, or increase the number of feeds by offering the breast in between your baby's usual breastfeeds.
• Here is an easy way to do this. If your baby does not settle after a feed, try offering another quick little ‘top up’ breastfeed. Those few minutes of extra feeding and cuddling may be all that is needed to soothe and satisfy him.
• Let your baby finish the first breast before switching to the second breast. 
• Or, you may find it helps to change sides several times during a feed, whenever your baby's sucking seems to become less strong. Some people find that this encourages the baby to suck more strongly and stimulates a good let-down reflex.
• You can also try massaging your breast. Stroke it towards the nipple on all sides as your baby feeds. Take care not to disturb the nipple in your baby's mouth.
• If your baby is awake you can offer little ‘snack’ feeds without waiting for baby to cry for them.
• You can try offering the breast to soothe your baby for a few days, instead of other comforting strategies (eg a dummy).
• You may find that your baby has fussy periods when he wants to breastfeed more frequently. There is more about this in the Fussy periods and wonder weeks article on this website.
• Although they vary greatly, many new babies need 8–12 or more feeds in 24 hours. Babies generally feed less often as they get older. Babies also generally feed more efficiently as they get older. 
• To increase your supply, you will need to fit in more feeds than is usual for YOUR BABY. Feeds do not need to be very long, just more often. In each 24 hours some feeds may be only 5–10 minutes long, others may be 30 minutes or longer, particularly when baby feeds to sleep slowly and contentedly.
• Help your milk to let-down quickly. Relax and enjoy feed times. Try to remove distractions (turn your phone off, put a ‘do not disturb’ sign on your door), then settle with baby into a comfortable chair. Breathe deeply, relaxing each part of your body separately as you may have learned to do at antenatal classes. Have a drink on hand, a book or a magazine, listen to the radio or watch TV. For more ideas, see the let-down reflex article on this website.
• Babies vary greatly in the amount of sucking they seem to need. There is no need to worry if your baby is contented with a fairly short feed. Some babies however love to continue sucking long after the flow of milk has dwindled to a trickle. This is fine too. Your baby will let you know how long his feeds need to be.
• A baby who is well attached and positioned is more able to drain the breast well. For more information, see the Attachment to the breast article on this website.

MORE FREQUENT FEEDING MEANS MORE MILK!

• Feed your baby more often than usual.
• Check that baby is well positioned at the breast.
• Allow the baby to decide the length of a feed.

Struggling with a low milk supply can be very upsetting and frustrating. Remember that any amount of breastmilk you provide your baby is valuable. If you have tried these ideas and are still finding low supply to be a problem, speaking with an Australian Breastfeeding Association counsellor on the Breastfeeding Helpline , a lactation consultant or your medical adviser may help.

She is the founder of ADOFitness and is an accomplished fitness industry professional, personal trainer, nutrition/prep coach, posing instructor, competitor, endorsed athlete, NPC judge, and cover model. Although her career began in the financial business world, this transitioned to full time personal training after her introduction and newly discovered love for bikini bodybuilding competitions in 2010. After extensive misguided nutrition and training advice, she was left with an unhealthy relationship with food and a damaged endocrine system. Her real passion then developed into helping herself and others reach their fitness goals in a healthy and sustainable way. Knowing she wanted to have children, she decided to stop competing and seek out an endocrinologist and hormone specialist. She began healing and restoring her body to a healthy state through proper nutrition and exercise. While she and her husband still had unexplained infertility challenges, they were blessed to conceive their son via In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Her miracle baby was born in December of 2016, which she proudly says is her greatest accomplishment to date! Her goal now with ADOfitness is to help others optimize their health with sustainable and realistic nutrition and exercise programs that focus on internal AND external health.

We wanted to check in with Amber and see what her pregnancy and Breastfeeding journey was like to help other Mums....

1.How did your exercise regime change in your pregnancy?

Due to some complications up front, I was on medical bedrest for about the first 14 weeks of my pregnancy. After that time, once I was cleared to workout, I didn't perform HIIT or direct core work any longer. I also lifted a little lighter than usual. Other than that it didn't change a whole lot. 

2.If there was a change, why? Energy, not sure about what to do etc

The only thing that held me back was fear of miscarriage due to complications with a subchorionic hemorrhage. Once that cleared up, nothing held me back other than understanding that direct core work and HIIT should be avoided part the second trimester.

3.What exercises did you do in your pregnancy?

Strength training, yoga, walking, and some jogging.

4.Number one top training tip for mums to be?

Listen to your body! Understand when you need to slow down, maybe eat a little more, or not push as hard!

5.Did you breastfeed? 

Yes, 30 months!

6.If so, do you think your active pursuits effected your supply?

No, I think a lot of factors affect supply but keeping water intake high, eating enough of the right foods, and properly bonding with your baby to establish your supply is key.

7.How did you balance feeding and exercise?? - tips

I would pump if need be and that way my son could be fed by our nanny or my husband if I was working out. I took it slow at first and made sure I didn't see a dip in my supply with my expenditure increasing. I noticed the biggest dip when my stress was high and when my water intake wasn't high enough. If I focused on those two things I didn't have any issues!

Wow what an incredible lady with so much knowledge in the fitness industry to share with Mums at all levels whether you want to get back into activity or you want to compete on stage.

If you want to check out more of Amber’s amazing journey head to https://www.amberdawnorton.com 

“Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will); being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way (which it won’t).” 

– James Baraz

"When we stay in the present, we make wiser choices and take things less personally."

- Saki Santorelli

“There could not be a better time to learn mindfulness than during pregnancy and early motherhood. For one thing, this is a time when most people have a strong motivation to become the best person they can be in a relatively short period of time. When you realize the full enormity of the responsibility you have taken on by becoming a mom, the primary source of care for another whole human being, not to mention one that you love more than you thought you could ever love, there is a really high level of motivation to try your best to get yourself into the best mental and emotional shape possible. I've talked to so many pregnant women who have for the first time in their lives encountered within themselves a deep and very sweet drive to learn new ways of being-quick! They don't want to pass on negative patterns to their child, and want to do everything possible to transmit a healthy foundation for the rest of their child's life.

Also, this is a great time to learn mindfulness because you are already open and somewhat vulnerable. The downside of this can be feeling off-balance or a little exposed, needing more help from others than usual and being at the mercy of your body's functions and your baby's needs. The upside is that this state of being provides a sort of malleability-some of your defenses are down, you may be feeling more sensitive than usual, and this is a great time to learn new skills! It makes you open-minded in a way that perhaps you are not when you've got everything under control. Since mindfulness has a lot to do with being in touch with the sensations in your body, and being aware, new moms are in a prime state to learn it! In fact, pregnancy and early motherhood, nursing and sleep disturbance, weight gain and weight loss-these all in some way force you to be in your body. For those of us who live most of our lives above our necks, this can actually be a great blessing.

Let me tell you a bit more about how mindfulness transformed my experience of motherhood!

Several years ago, as I struggled with postpartum depression and anxiety, I began to read about mindfulness.

Of course! I thought, I just need to be more mindful! Thank goodness I read this book! 

And then I tried to be mindful.

Without any of the meditating….

I didn’t want to waste my precious time sitting on a cushion doing nothing! I mean, I had all this parenting I had to do! 

But I realized that mindfulness didn’t work if I just read about it and liked the idea of it.

Once I started meditating... 

... my life started to change.

I discovered a peace and stillness at the core of my busy life.

I smiled more. I laughed more. 

 I found a new way of being and doing and mothering.

I realized I could respond much more skillfully to my children ~ even when they were driving me crazy!

I learned to be kind and compassionate to myself.

I knew that mindfulness had transformed me as a mother.

I knew I should start teaching this to others.” By Cassandra Vieten

Over the coming weeks we will share ways to practise mindfulness no matter what stage of motherhood you are at. (Pregnant, Breastfeeding, Postpartum, menopausal- we all deserve a bit of time out...) These practises should be short and not impact upon your day and be an extra chore to do...

‘Motherhood is a period which one enters when she becomes a mother. A mother is a person who brings up a child/her offspring with care and affection.’

So why is it that so many woman struggle with the transition to motherhood. One minute they are leading the charge in a corporate office. Their lives revolves around scheduled meetings, intellectually conversations, email creation, dressing professionally, using their talents etc- the next they are dealing with vomit stained tracksuit pants because they were on the floor and the tiredness resulted in lack of energy to get chores done (and they were comfy), drinking cold coffee because their attention was taken off elsewhere, their schedule is now defined by someone else and this is unpredictable, their boobs are leaking milk at the most random times, the TV/social media becomes their best friend because it is just too hard to leave the house, human excretions become the norm and you become so oblivious to the fact you are cleaning up someone else's poo (where as before the office cubicles freaked you out due to lack of hygiene) a shopping trip is a half a day ordeal where as before the lunch time shopping trip was therapy and full of excitement as you bought items to cloth yourself (now every spare cent gets spent on the kids outfits and you are still wearing your hyper colour tshirt from the 80’s).

It is real and the transition to motherhood is tough. You spend 9 months of the pregnancy getting prepared for the pending arrival but do you really know what is about to hit you until the moment actually comes?

The lose of identity is one of the biggest factors in this transition to motherhood. Once upon a time they were defined by their career or being a scientist, teacher, nurse etc and now they are just a ‘mother’. This transition can be such a shift that it negatively effects the newborn experience. There is nothing wrong with feeling like that as the transition and shift is so great. There are huge physiological and psychosocial changes as she transitions into the motherhood role. She also has to reestablish relationships and works to meet the physical and emotional needs of her infant plus, herself and other family members. Woman are also vulnerable to health problems as well as the hormonal shift in the postpartum period.

Here are our top 10 tips to coping with this transition into your new journey as a mother:

1. Identify positive coping strategies
2. Establish a good social network- mother group, family or like minded Mums in a similar situation
3. Set up realistic expectations- it is not the achievable to have a spotless house and care for a newborn, plus have a meal on the table every night etc etc. Realise what is achieveable- set the bar low and then the rest is a bonus.
4. Have a good support crew that understands the demands of being a mum and can anticipate your needs and help to step in when needed.
5. Avoid isolation- it becomes easy to spend extended periods of time alone with the baby inside the four walls of your house, it becomes easy to lose perspective and confidence. With more times that passes the social interactions become harder and you lose the ability to socialise. 
6. Have a sense of self beyond your children- this will allow you to feel half normal! By ostracising yourself and ceasing the activities you once enjoyed your well-being will suffer- even though you may think it is selfish to do something for you it is oh so important.
7. Trust your gut- you are an expert of your own child. Develop confidence in your abilities. You are the one who spends 24/7 with the baby and know their cries/routines/habits etc. 
8. Accept that life is different now- pace of life, perception from others , ability to get stuff done etc will all turn on its head. Be okay with it and know it is just a phase. 
9. Establish a routine of some description. Human beings need some sort of routine- even those that say they don't have a routine actually do. At bedtime we have a routine, getting out of bed in the morning we have a routine etc so by setting up a loose schedule of times allows structure to be placed around the day. Changing things up from time to time also helps to break up monotony. 
10. Become an optimist- remember you can not control everything especially the needs of a baby so just because you want to sleep at 9:30 doesn't mean they want to- or that visit to Aunty GeeGee well it doesn't always go the way you may want it too so accept, laugh it off and know that tomorrow is a new day. (And you can not control everything!)

The transition is tough so be kind and gracious and reach out if you are struggling x