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‘Mindful with your baby’ is a mindful parenting training for parents with a baby. This training is based on the 8-week mindful parenting training, as developed by Susan Bögels and Kathleen Restifo, and on the Infant Mental Health (IMH) vision. An important element in the training is the watching meditation, with attention for the baby.

Besides an overwhelming feeling of love and happiness that can accompany the birth of a baby, also stress can arise in this period. There is an elevated prevalence of mental health problems in parents after the birth of a baby. These problems, but also problems related to pregnancy and birth, (medical) problems with the baby, or problems in the family or the broader network, heighten the stress for parents and child, and can put the early parent-child relationship under pressure. The Mindful with your baby training is meant for parents with an infant from 0 to 18 months, who experience stress, and who would like to learn how to regulate their stress in a different way, to take care of themselves better, be more attentive with their baby, and/or want to improve the interaction with their baby.

The training consists of 8 weekly sessions of 2 hours long, of which 6 sessions voor parents and babies together and 2 sessions with parents only, and a follow-up session for parents and babies together. The training is given in little groups with 4 to 6 parents with their baby.

In the training, parents learn to become aware of their own experiences, even in the presence of their baby, to take care of themselves and be kind to themselves. They also learn to focus their full attention on their baby, reflect on the experiences of the baby, so that they can react as sensitively as possible to the needs of their baby. Lastly, they learn to use mindfulness during stressful situations with their baby, for example when their baby cries and when they feel insecure, powerless, or frustrated. By practicing all this in the presence of their babies, it becomes easier to also apply the learned abilities in the home situation where they need it most.

Research, done by UvA minds, on the effects of Mindful with your baby has shown that after the training, mothers feel more positive in relationship to their baby, and experience the temperament of their baby as easier. Mothers also show a decrease in psychopathology and parenting stress and an increase in self-compassion, mindfulness and mindful parenting. Another study on the mother-child interaction, that made use of video-observations, and that was carried out in a collaboration with the University of Amsterdam, showed that mothers become more accepting of their babies, and that they are better in interpreting the signs of the babies. This study also showed that babies become more responsive towards their mothers after the training.

For the Mindful with your Toddler (18 to 48 months of age) training, the important difference from the Mindful with your Baby training is that it is 9 sessions instead of 8, and that the first 4 sessions are done with the mothers only, after which the toddlers join the program (while in the baby training only sessions 1 and 5 are without the babies).

Among the 18 training hours, the trainer will give training on Mindful with your Baby in 12 training hours, whereas Mindful with your Toddler in 6 additional training hours that focuses on adjustments for this population and the highlights of giving mindfulness training in the presence of the toddlers.