Mindful with Your Baby A Mindfulness Program to Support Mothers with Postpartum Depression, Anxiety, and Stress

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are evaluating the mindfulness-based intervention Mindful with your Baby in women with babies aged 5 to 9 months postpartum who experience elevated postpartum depression, anxiety, or parental stress. This study aims to improve maternal mental health and the mother-infant bond by reducing symptoms and enhancing behavioral interaction and brain synchrony between mother and infant. Participants are assigned randomly to one of two groups a group-based therapist-guided intervention delivered via video conferencing over eight sessions, or a waitlist control group that receives a self-guided online version of the same eight-session program after a 10-week waiting period. The therapist-guided sessions focus on awareness, sensitive responding, self-care, and mindful parenting, actively including the baby in therapy. The self-guided program covers similar themes but is completed individually. Throughout the study, participants are assessed for changes in postpartum depression, anxiety, parental stress, mother-infant bonding, and neural synchrony before, during, and after the intervention, including a 10-week follow-up. Additional measures include mindfulness skills, self-compassion, infant temperament, mindful parenting, and parenting self-efficacy. These evaluations involve questionnaires and EEG recordings, with the total participation lasting about 18 weeks.

Mother-infant Bonding in the Brain: a Mindfulness-based Intervention