Journals

Abstract: This study examined the subjective daily experiences of motherhood as potential opportunities for spiritual awareness and personal transformation. It explored how an enduring commitment to fostering a child through adoption, marriage or conception may lead mothers to embrace a broadened perspective in life that mirrors the core spiritual values of world religions and perennial wisdom traditions.

The maternal patient-provider relationship is important in birth experiences. However, no measures of obstetric patient-provider relationship quality exist, perhaps partially explaining why the concept has not been systematically studied in pre- and perinatal psychology and related fields. As a first step in this line of inquiry, we examined a care provider trust measure completed by 70 obstetric clinic patients along with state anxiety, fear of childbirth, and postpartum satisfaction measures. The trust measure performed similarly with our sample as in the original validation.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of “good, rational thoughts” (called “prayer”) on the fetus and the mother during the 3rd trimester of pregnancy. The good thoughts (prayer) are radiated, in the form of recording, from Swami Vijnananand, a person who was a selfless, benevolent, philosopher, thinker, who devoted his entire life for social good and totally isolated from the families undergoing the experiment. In all, 1850 cases were critically analyzed, in this study.

Interview with Mary Jackson, CPM,Midwife integrating pre and perinatal psychology principles into midwifery practice. Mary Jackson RN, CPM, LM, RCST, has been a home birth Midwife since 1975. She has attended over 2,000 births in the Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Ojai, California areas and is now attending home births with her second generation of babies. She has incorporated a two-year craniosacral training with Michael Shea and the two-year Castellino Prenatal and Birth Training into her midwifery practice.

In the last two decades the classical post-Cartesian mind-body dualism (which by many scientist and philosophers is considered to be old-fashioned and overcome by modern monism of materialism) seems to be prevailed by a kind of body-brain dualism propagated by modern neurophysiology and neurophilosophy.

The neurodevelopmental risks of prenatal exposure to synthetic Oxytocin (OXT) during childbirth are relatively unexplored; however, it seems plausible that lifelong consequences could occur. This article expounds upon a pilot study (Kurth & Haussmann, 2011) that posited an association between prenatal OXT exposure and childhood onset of ADHD, suggesting neurodevelopmental disorders may be a consequence of this exposure. Study results, conclusions, and speculative impressions are discussed1.

Recent research across various disciplines, including attachment theory, neuroscience, developmental psychology, and pre and perinatal psychology, suggests the importance of redefining parenting effectiveness to include empathic attunement. In light of this research, the importance of prenatal education and training for mothers in body-centered contemplative practices, due to the resulting potential for the development of empathic attunement and the corresponding impact on the developing mind/brain of their children, is discussed.

Pregnancy as a feminine initiation becomes conscious to a woman when she engages with her pregnant imagination through dreams, art, emotions, and somatic changes. If the woman acknowledges her emotional and psychological reactions arising from core archetypal patterns, a “conscious pregnancy” occurs. Three stages of the initiation are outlined: Gateway, Attending, and Passage. Focusing on the Attending stage, three key psychological components are explored: shadow, syzygy, and simultaneity. Viewing the prenatal psyche through C.G.

In order to validate external perceptions there are clear criteria in the natural sciences as to what is known and what is not known. In psychology we are dealing with internal perceptions, where the boundary between knowledge and non-knowledge cannot be so clearly defined due to the subjectivity of the observer. However, during the past hundred years, a culture of validation of internal perceptions has been developed in psychoanalysis and other psychotherapies by means of controlled self experience and supervision.