Mindful Birthing: Training the Mind, Body, and Heart for Childbirth and Beyond

Brief Description:
"The mindfulness-based Childbirth & Parenting program at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine"--Cover.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- Introduction -- 1. Everything's Changing! -- 2. Inner Preparation for Childbirth and Beyond -- 3. The World in a Raisin -- 4. The Breath: A Friend for Life -- 5. Practicing Embodiment: The Body Scan -- 6. The Dynamic Duo: Pain and Fear -- 7. Mindfulness Practices for Being with Pain -- 8. The Yoga of Childbirth -- 9. Deepening and Expanding Your Practice: Sitting Meditation -- 10. When You're Walking, Just Walk; When You're Birthing, Just Birth -- 11. Mindfulness in Everyday Life -- 12. A Day of Mindfulness Practice -- 13. Befriending: Mindfulness in Relationship -- 14. It's All About Kindness -- 15. Loss, Grief, and Healing Through Mindfulness Practice -- 16. Causes and Conditions: Navigating What Is -- 17. Your Baby, Your Mindfulness Teacher -- 18. Breastfeeding: A Dance of Connection -- 19. Endings and Beginnings: A Last Class -- 20. Life After Birth: A Reunion -- 21. Birthing a Mindfulness Practice -- Epilogue -- Appendix A. Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting (MBCP) and Integrative Medicine: A Little More Background -- Appendix B. Resources -- Appendix C. Pleasant and Unpleasant Events Calendars -- Appendix D. Mindfulness Practices -- Notes -- Credits -- Index -- About the Author.

Marc Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Jacket Description/Back:

With Mindful Birthing, Nancy Bardacke, nurse-midwife and mindfulness teacher, lays out her innovative program for pregnancy, childbirth, and beyond. Drawing on groundbreaking research in neuroscience, mindfulness meditation, and mind/body medicine, Bardacke offers practices that will help you find calm and ease during this life-changing time, providing lifelong skills for healthy living and wise parenting.

SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF MINDFUL BIRTHING:

• Increases confidence and decreases fear of childbirth
• Taps into deep inner resources for working with pain
• Improves couple communication, connection, and cooperation
• Provides stress-reducing skills for greater joy and wellbeing

"Mindful Birthing develops a unique blend of meditation, yoga and scientific information into a user friendly approach to maternity care and life changes after childbirth. It is a practical way to approach the many potential technologic intrusions that are so much a part of modern day obstetrics." - - Douglas W. Laube, MD, Past President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

"In Mindful Birthing, science, story, and skill-building are woven together seamlessly engaging the reader to pay attention to the breath and stay in the moment, fully experiencing happiness and joy as well as fear and pain. Expectant mothers and their partners can just "be". What a gift!" - Sharon S. Rising, midwife and CEO of the Centering Healthcare Institute

"This book gives parents and parents to be the tools they need to meet their experience with honesty, compassion, and kindness. A truly valuable resource." - Sharon Salzberg, author of Real Happiness

"Bringing mindfulness to the birthing process has everything to recommend it: it can reduce fear and stress and make the experience more rewarding for all involved. All that's required is to practice the techniques that Nancy Bardacke explains so clearly in this book. What's more, you will find they apply just as well to parenting and to all aspects of life." - Andrew Weil, MD, New York Times bestselling author

"Until Mindful Birthing, good techniques for helping you experience the unpredictable changes of pregnancy and birth with resilience have not been available. Using the mindfulness practices in this book, the process of pregnancy, birth, and parenting is transformed from a series of stressful changes to a joyful journey. This book supercedes every other book written for pregnant women." - Mark Williams, bestselling author of The Mindful Way Through Depression

"As a mother to be, I learned to mindfully embrace the uncertainties of birth and parenting through Nancy's teachings. As an obstetrician, I felt inspired to integrate these methods into my practice. This is at the top of my recommended reading list for all of my patients." - Sarah Wilson MD, University of California, San Francisco

"Until Mindful Birthing, good techniques for helping you experience the unpredictable changes of pregnancy and birth with resilience have not been available. Using the mindfulness techniques in this book, the process of pregnancy, birth, and parenting is transformed from a series of stressful changes to a joyful journey." - - Tekoa L. King CNM, MPH Deputy Editor Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health

"Mindful Birthing is a lovely book. It makes you think and it makes you cry. Give it to any one you know about to give birth. It will change the parents' life--and the life of their child." - Barry Boyce, editor-in-chief, Mindful.org

"Mindful Birthing recognizes that no factor is more significant for our national health than how our children are born and raised. Nancy Bardacke offers a vision for how everyone involved in birth and parenting can act with utmost care. Let's make this required reading in medical education. - Congressman Tim Ryan

"Mindful Birthing is a unique, positive and welcome contribution to the world of birthing. I often recognize Nancy's students during their labor process when I am attending on the obstetrical unit, by their enthusiastic embrace of their labor, by their focus, and by their amazing ability to cope with unexpected challenges. I highly recommend this book to all pregnant women." - Patricia A. Robertson MD, Professor and Attending Obstetrician, University of California, San Francisco

"As a mother to be, I learned to mindfully embrace the uncertainties of birth and parenting through Nancy's teachings. As an obstetrician, I felt inspired to integrate these methods into my practice. Nancy's wisdom, humor and compassion flow throughout her new book, imparting her depth of experience in an approachable manner. This is at the top of my recommended reading list for all of my patients." - Sarah Wilson MD, University of California, San Francisco

"Until Mindful Birthing, good techniques for helping you experience the unpredictable changes of pregnancy and birth with resilience have not been available. Using the mindfulness practices in this book, the process of pregnancy, birth, and parenting is transformed from a series of stressful changes to a joyful journey. This book supercedes every other book written for pregnant women." - Tekoa L. King CNM, MPH Deputy Editor Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health

"Bringing mindfulness to the birthing process has everything to recommend it: it can reduce fear and stress and make the experience more rewarding for all involved. All that's required is to practice the techniques that Nancy Bardacke explains so clearly in this book. - Andrew Weil, MD, New York Times bestselling author

"Combining ancient wisdom and modern evidence-based science, the practices in this book will change your life. A must-buy for expectant parents, for midwives and other professionals involved in birthing, and also for any of us who want a glimpse of what great mindfulness teaching can offer us." - Mark Williams, bestselling author of The Mindful Way Through Depression

"Mindful Birthing is a unique, positive and welcome contribution to the world of birthing. I highly recommend this book to all pregnant women." - Patricia A. Robertson MD, Professor and Attending Obstetrician, University of California, San Francisco

Contributor Bio:Bardacke, Nancy
Nancy Bardacke, RN, CNM, MA, is the founding director of the Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting (MBCP) program, which she currently leads at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. She is also an assistant clinical professor in the UCSF School of Nursing.