Mindfulness-Based Childbirth Practice
Absolutely not! In fact, one of the most useful aspects of the MBCP approach is that the mindfulness practice it teaches is not just for dealing with contractions. Even if your birth plan includes an epidural or other interventions, or if birth story ends up being something very different from what you planned and envisioned, the practice can help you cope with whatever your experience is as it occurs in the present moment.
In addition to providing essential information about how birth works, MBCP supplies powerful mindfulness-based coping methods that help you to connect with your body while managing the intense sensations of labour contractions. Mindfulness techniques help break the fear-tension-pain cycle that causes the pain of childbirth to become overwhelming. Part of the class is actual “pain practice” in which the techniques are applied in a real-life situation (immersing the hands in a bucket of ice water) so you can trust that they will actually work!
MBCP is Mindfulness-Based Childbirth & Parenting, an approach to childbirth preparation developed by midwife Nancy Bardacke and based on the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction approach of Jon Kabat-Zinn. MBCP harnesses the power of mindfulness to approach the specific challenges of birth and of parenting a newborn.