Going through any pregnancy can feel like a test of our mind, body, and soul. Stress is something that we can either feel wired for in life, or the pregnancy itself can cause a cornucopia of concerns. Surviving stress in pregnancy is completely achievable, and it’s important to take care of our physical health as well as our mental health. Here are some methods to help you calm your senses.
Stop the Chaos Theories
We’re carrying our child, so it’s easy to let our mind go to the worst-case scenario. It’s easy to get carried away when we hear about birth injury claims or complications in childbirth, but the most important thing for us to do is to calm right down. This is one of the fundamental tenets of something like hypnobirthing. We have to remember that it is so easy to become overwhelmed in a medical setting because it’s a completely alien environment, especially when it comes to our first pregnancy. Stopping the chaos theories can be difficult, but through mindfulness and relaxation techniques, when we notice our mind getting carried away, it will not just help us through the pregnancy but throughout life.
Not Comparing Yourself to Others
You no doubt have heard about somebody down the road who had an amazing experience (and even the stork made an appearance!), and this could easily make us feel like our experience will not measure up. Everybody’s different, and we can all run the risk of feeling inadequate because of a number of different reasons, especially when it comes to other mothers. It’s critical that we don’t compare ourselves to others for this very reason, but it’s also an amazing life lesson that we should all learn every now and then.
Recognise Your Triggers
The toughest thing about navigating pregnancy and all of its forms is that we’re going to have a surge of hormones that aren’t necessarily reflective of who we are. There will be times when we are experiencing extreme anxieties for very obvious reasons, for example, maybe the baby’s not kicking as much as they used to. This is why we need to have an excellent working relationship with our midwives. They are always ready to answer questions, and the greatest thing about your midwife is that you can always reach out, and they will understand more than anybody else how to help you through this mental health wobble. It’s important to recognise those triggers, and if you are feeling overwhelmed because it’s now time for the third trimester or you are now in a full-on nesting stage, when we start to recognise what our triggers are, we can invariably stop those anxieties in their tracks.
It certainly is not an easy thing to do, but we have to remember that pregnancy can be a very exciting time. There are, of course, physical pregnancy symptoms as well as mental health concerns. We must all learn the importance of taking care of our mental health not just during pregnancy but afterwards.
