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Mindful Parenting: Stimulating Infant Development through Yoga

Therese M. Pope | May 14, 2008

Jackie Long, yoga teacher and marriage and family therapist, planned to study the effects of meditation on the brain for scientific purposes only. After spending two months living in a monastery in Thailand, she witnessed the profound effect it had on her and she became interested in studying the brain using fMRI techniques. However, she moved away from science and found her yogic path instead.

“I felt called to work with people. So instead of researching meditation I decided it was my calling to teach it,” Long recalls.

Yoga Encourages Emotional Intimacy

Long has combined her neuroscience, therapy and yoga backgrounds to teach yoga to both infants and new parents. She mentions that yoga encourages both physical intimacy and emotional attunement between the parent and baby.

“The attuned presence of a loving caregiver facilitates the development of the neural networks in a baby's brain. Often, however, new parents are so stressed and overwhelmed, it's challenging for them to be present enough to attune to their baby. Yoga is a practice that invites parents back to the present moment,” says Long.

How Babies Benefit From Yoga

Yoga benefits the neuromuscular development of babies. It helps foster mind-body connections at a very early age. When a parent is actually practicing mindfulness and compassion with their baby, it actually benefits the baby’s developing mind. This sensitive responding of a loving caregiver lays down the neural framework that will help the baby in future years, according to Long.

Yoga also helps to stretch and strengthen infants’ muscles. It cleanses the circulatory system and the lymphatic system, which in turn benefits the immune system.

“In terms of the baby’s development, many yoga postures stimulate the proprioceptor system of nerves throughout the body involved in balance. Stimulating this system through yoga postures can help improve balance, which can help benefit a person across his/her entire life!”

Helping Parents Connect

As a result of her work with infants and new parents, she created “Yoga With Your Baby” DVD (http://www.yogawithyourbaby.com/). She taught infants at Google’s child care facility and noticed how quickly the infants attached to her.

“Over the same time period, I was working with a woman with severe post-partum depression in my counseling psychology practice as a Marriage & Family Therapy intern. This woman had a very hard time connecting to her baby. She expressed remorse over the fact that she wasn't able to provide her baby with the loving care her baby so deserved. I was touched by this woman’s process of moving through such a challenging time,” remarks Long.

Tuning into Cues

According to Long, parents feel lost and stressed when they become new parents and some don’t even know how to change a diaper.

“The primary objective in mindful parenting, attachment parenting, and thus in my DVD is to encourage parents to attune to their baby and to respond appropriately and sensitively to his/her cues in the moment. I attempted to create a DVD program that allows for and encourages this kind of sensitive responding that is so important, so simple, yet easily and so often overlooked.”

Parents Need Support

Long enjoys helping new parents and their babies. She emphasizes that parenting is a tough job and there is no formal training out there for parents. She encourages new parents to get as much help and support as they take on their new parenting role.

“Find a mentor, talk to other parents, find a meditation or yoga teacher you like or trust, and/or have regular visits with a compassionate psychotherapist. It’s a beautiful job, and it’s also a very challenging one. Get support,” advises Long.

She encourages parents to try her DVD or to enroll in a class designed for infants and parents. She encourages parents to attend a class and observe the first time. They will be surprised at how easy, playful and engaging yoga can be for both parents and their babies.