(126) Early Pregnancy Mindfulness and Adverse Perinatal Outcomes

This is a planned secondary analysis of a prospective cohort that included nulliparous parturients recruited between 5/2019-2/2022 from a single, high volume center.  Participants completed a validated assessment of mindfulness (Mindfulness and Attentive Awareness Scale) at < 20 weeks and were followed longitudinally. Detailed pregnancy and delivery data were collected by trained research personnel. The primary outcome was a composite of APO (gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and cesarean delivery). Secondary analyses included individual composite components. Bivariate analyses compared APOs by mindfulness quartile. Multivariate logistic regression compared APOs by continuous mindfulness score, controlling for confounders that were significant in bivariable analyses.

Results: Of the 300 parturients, the median early pregnancy mindfulness score was 4.6 (IQR 3.9-5.3) and 48.3% experienced an APO. There were significant differences in demographic characteristics by mindfulness quartile (Table 1). Increasing baseline mindfulness was associated with an increased risk for cesarean. However, baseline mindfulness was not associated with a difference in composite adverse pregnancy outcomes or any of the individual outcomes evaluated in multivariable analyses (Table 2).

Conclusion: Baseline mindfulness was not associated with differences in adverse pregnancy outcomes. Insofar as prior literature suggests mindfulness training may decrease adverse outcomes, these findings suggest that there may be a core component of the active practice of mindfulness, rather than the achievement of being more mindful, that is associated with improved outcomes.