Teaching Compassionate Mind Training (CMT) to help midwives cope with traumatic clinical incidents

Hollins Martin, CJ, Beaumont, EA ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8259-5858, Norris, G and Cullen, G 2021, 'Teaching Compassionate Mind Training (CMT) to help midwives cope with traumatic clinical incidents' , British Journal of Midwifery, 29 (1) , pp. 26-35.

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Abstract

This paper considers use of Compassionate Mind Training (CMT) to help midwives cope with traumatic clinical incidents. In this context, CMT is taught to cultivate compassion and teach midwives how to care for themselves as they would women, family and friends. The need to build midwives’ resilience is recognized by the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), who advocate that mental health coping strategies be embedded into midwifery curriculum. In this respect, CMT can be used as a resilience building method designed to help the midwife respond to self-criticism and threat-based emotions with compassion. The underpinnings of CMT involves understanding that people can develop cognitive biases or unhelpful thinking patterns co-driven by an interplay between genetics and the environment. Within this paper, the underpinning theory of CMT is outlined and how it can be used to balance the psychological threat, drive, and soothing systems. The 3-way flow of compassion is further discussed, which involves: (1) delivering compassion to others, (2) accepting compassion from others, and (3) providing compassion to self. To stabilize emotions and create self-soothing, CMT activities have been described that are designed to improve ability to cope and reduce perceptions of threat and danger. To contextualize application to midwifery practice, a traumatic incident has been used to illustrate how CMT can improve a midwife’s compassion for self, quality of work life, and mental well-being. Overall, teaching CMT has potential to improve professional quality of life, reduce midwives’ sickness rates, and potential attrition from the profession.

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