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Sports Psychology Strategies for Empowered Birth
Welcome back for another great episode! I’m joined by Dr. Carla Meijen to discuss her book, Empowered Birth: Lessons From Sport Psychology for Your Maternity Journey. Her book is a fascinating take on how pregnancy can be viewed as an endurance sport. Join us to learn more!
About Dr. Carla Meijen
Dr. Carla Meijen is an accredited sport psychologist and Associate Professor of applied sport psychology at St. Mary’s University in London. In her work, she focuses on the mental demands of endurance performance, stress, and emotions in sports, and how to turn pressure into a positive challenge. Dr. Meijen has published her research in academic journals and has provided expert analysis for publications including the New York Times, Runner’s World, The Sunday Times Magazine, Cycling Weekly, Women’s Health, and the BBC. Dr. Meijen explains how to approach birth as a positive challenge and how it can be linked to endurance sports. She also shares sport psychology strategies that can be adapted to the birth process and how decompression can help in the postpartum period.
Sports Psychology Strategies for Empowered Birth Highlights:
How Dr. Carla’s work relates to pregnancy and the postpartum as a strength-based approach to the maternal journey
Why people seek out a sport psychologist
How a sport psychologist teaches people to manage pressure, expectations, and challenges
How we learn to view our demands, stress, and resources in terms of perceived control
How anxiety can have beneficial physiological responses
A look at Dr. Carla’s book
How we can think of goals as outcome-based or process-oriented
Strategies that apply well to the pregnancy, birth, and postpartum processes: chunking goals, self-talk, imagery (visualization), and more
Why tools should be customizable to each individual’s needs
How to apply a six-step approach to making sense of emotions and feelings
Why Dr. Carla includes in her book the importance of social support
Resources:
Connect with Dr. Carla Meijen:
Website: https://www.carlameijen.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlasportpsychology/
Empowered Birth Book: https://www.carlameijen.com/my-book-empowered-birth
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