تاثیرات مدیتیشن دوران بارداری بر رفتارهای نوزاد

Meditation is important in facilitating health. Pregnancy health has been shown to have significant consequences for infant behaviors. In view of limited studies on meditation and infant temperament, this study aims to explore the effects of prenatal meditation on these aspects. The conceptual framework was based on the postulation of positive relationships between prenatal meditation and infant health. A randomized control quantitative study was carried out at Obstetric Unit, Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong. 64 pregnant Chinese women were recruited for intervention and 59 were for control. Outcome measures were cord blood cortisol, infant salivary cortisol, and Carey Infant Temperament Questionnaire. Cord blood cortisol level of babies was higher in the intervention group (p < 0.01) indicates positive health status of the newborns verifies that prenatal meditation can influence fetal health. Carey Infant Temperament Questionnaire showed that the infants of intervention group have better temperament (p < 0.05) at fifth month reflects the importance of prenatal meditation in relation to child health. Present study concludes the positive effects of prenatal meditation on infant behaviors and recommends that pregnancy care providers should provide prenatal meditation to pregnant women.

Most doctors merely provide antenatal vitamins to pregnant women for the sake of maternal health and fetal health but not provide meditative intervention. Meditation is proven to be an excellent adjunctive treatment for many diseases (Mirams, Poliakoff, Brown, & Lloyd, 2013) but there is little information about prenatal meditative intervention on infant health. Recent research supports the effect of maternal and fetal programming in relation to child health (Dietro, 2012 and Melchior et al., 2012). Cognitive functioning and behavioral problems in childhood have been shown to be inversely related to fetal health (Charil, Laplante, Vaillancourt, & King, 2010). Infants of depressed mothers have difficult temperament and attentional, emotional and behavioral problems later in life (Field, 2011). Prenatal maternal anxiety predicts reduced adaptive immunity in infants (O’Connor et al., 2013). Evidences confirmed the extension of the risk of psychiatric disorders associated with prematurity to the late preterm group, and suggest that maternal depression may play a key role in this risk trajectory (Rogers, Lenze, & Luby, 2013). Maternal life stress events in pregnancy linked to children's school achievement at age 10 years (Li et al., 2013). The aim of this study is to examine the effects of prenatal meditation in pregnant Chinese women in Hong Kong to infant behaviors. The conceptual framework is based on the hypothesis that meditation can enhance maternal health and improve fetal health and child health (McCoy et al., 2010). The author has developed an Eastern based meditative intervention (EBMI) for pregnant Chinese women in Hong Kong (Chan, 2010). The theoretical background of EBMI bases on the integration of mindfulness practice, the Four Immeasurables, cognitive therapies and Western psychology and psychotherapy. Contents of EBMI were listed in Table 1.