Mindful Birthing

Birth has a way of destroying our best-laid plans, and that’s not a personal failure, it’s reality. 

We sit down with Jennifer Moffitt, a midwife who’s attended over a thousand births and now serves as Director of Community Partnerships and senior faculty at Mindful Birthing, to talk about what actually helps when control slips away: mindfulness, embodiment, and self-compassion you can practice before labor ever begins.

https://www.eomega.org/people/jennifer-averill-moffitt

We explore Mindful Birthing (also known as Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting, MBCP), a nine-week mindfulness-based childbirth education program rooted in the evidence base of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. 

Jennifer breaks down the five intentions of the curriculum, why “don’t know mind” belongs in every birth plan, and how mindful awareness can help parents relate differently to fear, uncertainty, and intense sensation. You’ll also hear a brief guided breath and body practice you can return to anytime you feel spun up or disconnected. 

We go deeper into the public health side too: perinatal outcomes in the United States, maternal health disparities, the chronic stress of racism, and the growing research linking stress physiology to preterm birth. Then we unpack one of the most practical reframes for labor and life: pain in labor as transformational pain, and how mindfulness can decouple pain from suffering so you don’t miss the breaks between contractions. 

If you find this helpful, subscribe, share with a friend who’s preparing for birth, and leave a review so more parents and clinicians can find the show. What’s one moment you want to meet with more presence this week?

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ABOUT THE SHOW

Mindfulness Exercises with Sean Fargo is a practical, grounded mindfulness podcast for people who want meditation to actually help in real life.

Hosted by Sean Fargo — a former Buddhist monk, mindfulness teacher, and founder of MindfulnessExercises.com — the show explores how mindfulness can support mental health, emotional regulation, trauma sensitivity, chronic pain, leadership, creativity, and meaningful work.

Each episode offers a mix o...