By: Dominica Morris

During these past 7 months of pregnancy I’ve been focusing really hard on being the most mindful, relaxed, and at peace as possible. Transitioning to motherhood isn’t just seeing and experiencing the changes in my body but also mentally preparing me for this new life changing journey. It can be quite stressful growing a little human inside of you. Worry can often creep in at any time and often I have to stop myself, take a deep breath, and calm my mind. Since meditation has always been a big part of my life, I knew that I wanted to incorporate it into my pregnancy. While looking for guided meditations that focused mainly on pregnancy and motherhood, to my surprise I was approached by the kind team at Expectful to try their new meditation app for parents to be and parents. Expectful has been a life changer for me. The meditations are powerful and I love all of the features that come with the app.

App Features

Before I talk about how Expectful has transformed me and my pregnancy journey, I want to talk about all of the wonderful features this app has to offer. These features have sold me on it right from the start and they are the reason why I absolutely recommend this to all parents and parents to be. The app is broken down into two sections the motherhood section and the now recently added fatherhood section. The motherhood section has various themed sections that have meditations on anything from trying to conceive, pregnancy, labor, postpartum, and healing. Similar to the motherhood section, the fatherhood section is also broken down into themes that include how to conceive, pregnancy, labor/birth, postpartum, and parenting.

Themed Meditations

My favorite feature about the Expectful app is that there are so many different types of meditations to choose from. Each themed section has anywhere from 12-20 different types of meditations. This often makes it hard for me to pick one, which honestly isn’t a bad problem to have. Once you have found the perfect meditations for you, the app makes it easy for you to save favorite ones, so you can come back to them without having to look for them. A second great feature is that you can download the meditations so that you can listen to them anywhere without Wi-Fi or cell service. This is especially handy while traveling.

Timed Meditations

The developers of Expectful have really thought of everything and it feels like they truly understand the busy lifestyles of parents. A feature that I absolutely love about this app is that each meditation can be timed for either 5, 10, or 20 minutes. This is perfect for me and my busy and sometimes overwhelming life. In the mornings right when I wake up I can listen to a 5 minute morning meditation to start my day, without it interrupting my regular morning routine. On days where I don’t have to rush to work, I can do that same meditation for 20 minutes.

Meditations For All Stages of Parenthood

With so many pregnancy apps, books and tools out there most only focus on pregnancy and not much beyond. Expectful on the other hand has taken things a step further. They have whole sections of meditations that go beyond pregnancy. I love for example that they have guided meditations for couples. My husband and I love meditating together and doing the Expectful couples meditations has helped us grow even closer.

Soothing Background Sounds

I love the sound of ocean waves. It’s completely calming to me and immediately puts my mind at ease, but not everybody is a fan of this and the developers at Expectful have also thought of this. Once you pick a meditation you can choose from many different background sounds that can play during your guided meditation. This is a nice little feature not many other meditation apps think about. It also helps keep things fresh so you can mix up.

How Expectful’s Guided Meditations Have Benefitted Me

As many of you know and as I have previously mentioned, meditation has always been a big part of my life. So when I found out about this app it not only helped me delve deeper into my meditation practice but also has helped me ease some of my anxieties surrounding pregnancy. While I’ve had a wonderful and easy pregnancy, there have been times where worry crept in. This was especially true in my first trimester. Was I doing everything right, is my baby healthy, will I be a good parent, will I lose myself once I' become a mom, will my new job treat me the same once I tell them that I’m pregnant? These were all thoughts that would creep into my head and it didn’t make this pregnancy a pleasant experience. Meditation and being mindful helped me work through my anxious thoughts and once I found the Expectful app, it made it easier for me to regularly meditate and to stay in the moment.

I also have been enjoying the couples meditations with my husband. Now that I’m pregnant we’ve been finding new ways to bond together and sitting together and meditating has been one of these things. Doing the guided meditations has been a wonderful way to grow closer but also a great way to help us process this pregnancy and deal with our worries and excitement surrounding it. I can’t wait to continue to use this app after my pregnancy and can only recommend it for anyone who is at any stage of their pregnancy journey and parenthood. Whether you’re trying to conceive, pregnant or already a parent Expectful is a wonderful guided meditation app that will help you ease your mind and keep you mindful.