Mindful Techniques for Postpartum Stress Relief (That You Can Use in Real Life)

Ceridwen

Welcome back to the Postpartum Prep Podcast. My name is Ceridwen. I'm your podcast host and your guide to preparing for a smoother start to life with your new baby.

Today on the podcast, we have a Q&A about mindful techniques for postpartum stress relief. And we have with us a mindful breastfeeding practitioner, Adele, from The Mindful Mama Mentor. And she's actually going to start off this Q&A today.

With a little breathing exercise, which I thought sounds lovely to help us just ground in before we get started. So Adele, I will let you take over from here.

Adele

Okay, so we're just going to do, as Ceridwen said, just a little grounding breathing exercise. And it's really straightforward, even if you've got a baby in your arms or you're heavily pregnant, just lean into this little moment. So what I'd like you to do is to just inhale through your nose and I'll count for four.

So breathing in, one, two, three, four, and exhale slowly for six. One, two, three, four, five, six. And again, inhale through the nose for four.

One, two, three, four, and exhale slowly for six. One, two, three, four, five, six. Okay, and usually we would recommend repeating that for a few rounds, but in the interest of time, I will just explain a little bit why.

And the longer exhale, when we're doing these breathing techniques, stimulates your vagus nerve and supports your parasympathetic activation, which is your body's calming response. So that's why we recommend just taking a little moment just to have those sort of mindful breathing moments. And those can be picked up anywhere, you know, even when you're feeding or doing the washing up or whatever it might be.

Just holding that and just counting that for yourself even is just a really good way to just ground yourself in the moment. So yeah.

Ceridwen

I can confirm after just doing that for two times, I felt so much like, I felt really good. I think that is the thing about all of this is like, sometimes it really does feel like, oh, but I need to do the washing up, but like, I have to focus on that and like, it needs to be done and I can't have time. But actually, like, even if you feel a tiny bit better while you're doing it, isn't that worth it?

I don't know. So, well, I know and I think so, but I will get started with our first question now that we're all relaxed. The first question we had is, do you have any tips for dealing with spiraling thoughts during postpartum?

Anything I can do to help myself calm down immediately?

Adele

Sure, so there's several things, but I think a really accessible one is thinking about sensory grounding. So thinking about naming three things that you can see, two things that you can hear, and one thing that you can physically feel, and that's really useful for just bringing yourself back into the moment. And usually, that's, like I say, easily accessible.

You can generally see three things, you can generally hear a few things, and you can generally feel a thing. So just reiterating that to yourself, just thinking, right, sensory grounding. And I think this is really useful as well for things like, I used it quite a lot when my baby was first born and we started Event Traveler House, and everything felt very overstimulating and overwhelming, and going to groups and just getting dressed and leaving the house felt really overwhelming.

So that was a really good thing if we were like walking to something or in the car, whatever it might be, just giving yourself that moment. And another really good thing for spiraling thoughts as well as humming, just humming a tune or just a noise or whatever it might be, because it's really, the frequency of humming steadies your nervous system, and it's really hard to actually think about other things when you're humming. So just humming to yourself or humming to your baby, whatever it might be, is a really good way as well to kind of introduce it in to stop those spirals.

Ceridwen

I know we kind of mentioned in our main episode, for anyone who's listening, we just recorded a full episode about preparing mentally for breastfeeding. And one of the things we mentioned is about that connection between you and your baby and your calm and your baby's calm. And I think humming is one of those things, when we think of soothing techniques for babies, that is often on the list of like, things you can do to soothe your baby, you can do some humming.

But actually, isn't it interesting, humming is really calming for you and maybe your baby's not on that.

Adele

Yeah, and it's that thing of like, you know, the natural rocking that you do. Like today, this morning, I was holding somebody else's baby. And just automatically, you just start doing that kind of rocking, don't you?

And that's just steady, slow, repetitive movement, as much as it's really regulating for your baby, it's really regulating for you as well. So even if you're pregnant, you can still start doing those things, you know, you can start just practicing those things that you will inherently do anyway with the rocking, right? But just that mindful movement of just, again, I could go into it lots, but there's lots of research and things and techniques for like butterfly breathing and the tapping and things like that.

So just having a kind of little toolkit prepared before you've had your baby is a really great idea just to find what resonates for you, find what works for you, and then have that just ready there when you have those moments where you're feeling a little bit overwhelmed.

Ceridwen

That actually kind of brings me to our next question was, are there any mindful techniques for postpartum stress relief that I can start practicing now during pregnancy? But I feel like you've kind of covered that a little bit, but was there anything else that you would want to add?

Adele

I would say self-compassion is really important. Start practicing in pregnancy. And actually saying things out loud, or even if you just say them internally, but I think there's really something about verbalizing something or writing it down.

That's why I do a lot with my work. I do a lot of verbal affirmations, but I always write them down for people as well because I think they're really, it's really important to have a visual prompt and sometimes have it in a place that you see all the time and you're subconsciously seeing it and that repetition of seeing it. So just thinking about like a compassion reset, I'll say, and it would be a case of just placing a hand on your chest, and your heart preferably, and either saying internally or externally, this is really hard, but I have overcome hard things before.

Or something like, other mothers feel this too, I'm not failing. Or a really nice one is, may I be kind to myself in this moment? And I think thinking about what advice you would give somebody else in that experience, and the kindness that you're going to offer your baby, you deserve that kindness too.

Being self-compassion, being mindful of self-compassion in pregnancy will really stand you in good stead for being more compassionate and kind to yourself in this postpartum too. Yeah, so that's definitely something, again, all of these things can be done during pregnancy. So the breathing, the grounding, and yeah, just thinking it's not empty.

You're not trying to empty your mind and you're not trying to force positivity. It's noticing what's here and now and working with the circumstances or the environment that you're in. So yeah, and I think for some people as well, you know, when you're even going to like antenatal appointments and stuff can feel really anxiety provoking, and these are really good if you're in a waiting room for an appointment.

Just giving yourself a few minutes just to notice and to breathe and to just, yeah, ground yourself into the moment as well.

Ceridwen

I guess all of these things are things that you might find helpful even preparing for birth. Yeah, I feel like so many of the things that we do to prepare for birth are then, it's like actually, it's not just preparing for birth, but the fact that we've done them to prepare for birth is going to carry you through postpartum and breastfeeding and parenting. And the last question that we had today was, how do I find time to practice stress relief techniques when postpartum is so busy?

There are so many other things I have to do that are more urgent.

Adele

Yeah, so it's kind of as we've just said, isn't it, of like utilizing moments that you do have because your thoughts and your mind are constant throughout all of these things. So I think like we said, even if you're doing the washing up or you know, whatever it might be, daily tasks around the home, walking, driving, is giving yourself permission to utilize those moments for something other than worry and speed of, I must do that next. I must do that next.

And I think breastfeeding really supports giving yourself those moments as well because you are going to be feeding and sat still and while your mind might be racing about lots and lots of things while you're sitting and feeding, you know, just noticing your baby's breath and like just breathing with them and just noticing the sensations in your body when you're feeding and, you know, sounds and textures around you. If you're eating something really nice, it can even just be like having a drink of water and be noticing the temperature of the water and it's just a mindset shift of moments. How can you find a mindfulness aspect of each moment, you know, or you're watching something you really enjoy or it made you laugh or whatever it might be.

Like I touched on in the previous episode, it doesn't have to be an hour long or even 30 minutes in a dark room in quiet. It can be in a busy coffee shop when things feel a bit overwhelming, you know, just thinking, oh, that coffee smells really good or noticing the environment around you and that's why I think being in nature is just incredible for that because it's just an abundance of those things and it forces you to notice, doesn't it, the smells or the sounds or, you know, whatever it might be. There's so much sensory input in nature that it kind of forces you to be back into your own body.

So yeah, when people are ready to go out kind of postpartum, I think just being in nature or in the woods or by the sea lends itself beautifully for those moments as well.

Ceridwen

Yeah, and even for your baby too, I feel like going outside, even just on the doorstep is like a magic trick for babies and helping to calm them down and, you know, when they are, maybe if they're not needing calming down, but maybe they're needing more stimulation. Also, it's like a great sensory experience for them. And I think there's so much research about what an amazing thing nature does for our mental health as adults as well.

Adele

So it's, yeah. Yeah, what I would like to say as well is just thinking about your own body in this moment when you're listening is just thinking about the softness of your own jaw right now, you know, softening your shoulders, just taking in even one deep breath and just noticing in the moment that you're here and that is enough and, you know, for example, listening to this podcast, just the fact that you're here and listening to this shows how deeply you care about your pregnancy and your birth and your baby and just thinking about what would change if you treated yourself with the same gentleness that you're going to give your baby and be sure to direct that inwards as well because they will feel what you feel and they're feeling all of your feelings while you're pregnant too. And like you said with humming even, humming while you're pregnant is lovely and babies, you know, they're hearing that, hearing mum's voice and all of those things.

So it's never too soon to hum and sing to them and read to them and, you know, sort of documentary style your day, you know, talking to them and all those things. And I think actually doing that as well is good for making you realise what is around you.

Ceridwen

True. Yes. That's actually, I love the thought because I mean one of the things we often talk about for language development is kind of narrating your day and it's like you can do that to support your baby's language development, but also how grounding that is for you as well.

I think that's lovely and here on the Postpartum Prep Podcast we really like to talk about the way that mother and baby's well-being are so interlinked. That's my, like my Instagram mother baby well-being is the whole point of that. It's about the well-being that comes from that mother baby connection.

And I think that's a really nice example. Thank you so much for joining us today, Adele. We, for anyone listening, be sure to go back and check out our full episode because I mean that conversation, I got so much out of that conversation and I am just really excited to share it with you guys as well.

Adele, where can people find you if they'd like to learn more about you or work with you?

Adele

Yeah, so I am on Instagram and Facebook and both, so Instagram at The Mindful Mama Mentor and Facebook The Mindful Mama Mentor and my website is themindfulmamamentor.co.uk and yeah, so that's where you can find me online and I know you're in the US but in the UK, I volunteer at various things as well, which are mentioned on my social media. So if you're in, so I'm in West Sussex in the UK. So if anyone listening is in that area, I'm often volunteering at various things, which you can find out about on my social media.

But also just to say, you know, my DMs are always open to people and I offer complimentary connection calls with people because I think it's so important to connect with the person that's going to be supporting you postpartum and in your pregnancy. So I offer those and I love that opportunity to meet with people and to check that I'm the right fit for them. So if you're like, oh, I don't know if mindful breastfeeding would be for me, I have got a post about that.

But also I'm really happy to speak to people, like as we are doing now with video calling a cup of tea and speak, that's so British, isn't it? It's a cup of tea. But yeah, speak to people about how it's okay.

I've got my cup of tea. I love that. I love that.

So yeah, so you can reach me lots of different ways, but I'm always, I'm so passionate about what I do and I'm always happy to speak to people about it. So if you've got any questions or any thoughts or wonderings or anything like that, then please do reach out.

Ceridwen

Amazing. That's great to know and I'm glad, I don't think we mentioned that in the other episodes. So I'm glad that we mentioned those, the complimentary codes people can get with you.

And that wraps up our episode today. So thank you everyone for listening. If you are listening to this episode and you enjoyed it, please be sure, maybe you can send it, share it with someone else who would benefit from this episode and you can also leave a review which is the best way to support the podcast and help me to keep sharing all this amazing information and support completely for free for you as new moms.

And you can also make sure you're subscribed if this is your first episode that you're listening to and if you would like to submit a question for a future Q&A episode, I always share in my email newsletter upcoming guests and so, and the upcoming Q&A topics. So you can, the best way to subscribe to my email newsletter is by downloading my free postpartum prep checklist, which is a checklist to help you, walks you through everything that you need to do to get ready for life after birth. And when you sign up for the checklist, you'll be subscribed to my email newsletter.

And so you'll get weekly updates about not just about upcoming topics for the Q&A, but also about newly released episodes. So it's a, it's a fun place to be and just to keep updated with everything going on over here at the postpartum prep podcast. So hopefully I'll see you in there and hopefully we will see you in our episode that, yeah, in our last episode about preparing mentally for postpartum, which is also with Adele.

Thanks Adele so much and thank you all for listening today. Bye for now.