Is mindfulness helpful for women and their partners during childbirth?

Today we talk with neuroscientists Emileana Simon Thomas from UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science

Center about the transformative practice of mindful body scan meditation.

Welcome back to savvy psychologist. I'm your host Dr. Jade Wu and every week I'll help you meet

life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear and zero judgment. We hear about mindfulness everywhere these days in news

articles, wellness magazines, at the doctor's office on social media, or bombarded with images of attractive calm people bathed in

sunlight smiling as they sit cross-legged with their eyes serenely closed.

Doesn't it look so nice? If only if we're so easy for those of

us who aren't stock photography models to find bamboo forests at just the right

temperature with nobody else around in wish to quietly

practice daily meditation.

But maybe we don't need perfect conditions to practice mindfulness?

What if cultivating mindfulness were possible right here, right now?

What if we could even do it during times of chaos and pain.

Research has shown that even under extreme circumstances,

like during childbirth, we can and should practice mindfulness. Of course it won't totally ease pain or

anxiety during childbirth. Mindfulness isn't sorcery that can simply wave

those away, but the practice of being grounded and mindful allows birthing parents

and their partners to feel less fearful, more connected, more satisfied, more bonded, and even to have better post-partum recovery and better parenting in the long run.

To learn about this, about how mindfulness works in the context of childbirth, I spoke with Dr. Emileana Simon Thomas, the science

director at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center and a Mother of Three.

Trained in Neuroscience and Social Psychology,

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