Your Emotional Ups and Downs During Pregnancy

Ups and Downs During Pregnancy

The pregnancy period is a process of changing one’s role from being a kid of others to someone else’s mom. As the roles change, the responsibility and burden would also increase.

Especially for a first-time mom, it may be easy for you to get mentally disrupted when encountering physical and mental things you haven’t experienced before.

Throughout the different stages of pregnancy, you might have psychological changes that interfere with daily life. However, this is common, especially given your internal body changes.

Before knowing why and when the psychological changes occur, we should get an idea of the basic mode of the changes first:

Mood swings

Mood swings during pregnancy are one of the psychological reactions that are caused by hormonal changes. A common manifestation of it is crying. The emotional state of a pregnant woman can be influenced by the rising level of her progesterone and stress hormones. Hence, do not feel upset when you realise you or the pregnant lady around you are often weepy. A flood of hormones just triggers it.

Fear and Anxiety

The feeling of fear as a pregnant woman encompasses many things, such as the fear of miscarriage, failure in the childbirth process, and unable to support the whole family. It stems from the feeling of lack of control towards those possibilities. Often, fear and anxiety come in pairs, and most of the time, anxiety is triggered by the instinct to protect the baby. It can even affect your health when it interferes with your sleep.

Sadness

A pregnant woman might experience a feeling of sadness and tears up more often. It comes from the overwhelming feelings of going through difficulties in eating, sleeping, and daily activities. When they feel miserable and do not want to express their complex feeling, there is the possibility of depression.

So, what are the factors that may affect these psychological changes?

Culture

Other than the internal hormone changes, one might also be influenced by her own culture. The culture and beliefs of a woman would affect her feelings during the expecting.

For example, few pregnant moms believe the culture hearsay that morning sickness relates to whether the baby likes the food. This might affect the way of taking care of the pregnancy and bring unnecessary mental disturbance.

Family

Besides, the family itself can influence the psychological changes during pregnancy. If the woman is loved as a child, she would have an easier time accepting the pregnancy. If not, she might take pregnancy as a source of burden. Undoubtedly, it is better if the family has a positive attitude and a growing environment.

Individual

More importantly, is the individual herself? It is about the ability to cope with stress. The mommy would have an easier time if she felt secure with the spouse’s relationship. Whenever she feels uncomfortable, she can talk to her better half.

Pregnancy Stages

First Trimester

During the early three months of pregnancy, a woman may easily feel anxiety and fear as everything is new. She would need time to adjust to the new changes and accept the pregnancy. Depending on their culture and family, pregnant women would feel pleased or unhappy from the life-altering situation. They might become depressed and upset easily about little things as their hormonal level rises, and they must go through uncomfortable times like morning sickness.

Second Trimester

They start accepting the baby during the fourth to sixth month of pregnancy, and the anxiety becomes less intense. In this period, women become more forgetful and disorganised than before. In the meantime, they become self-conscious of their looks from physical changes. Some would feel overwhelmed by these, but some would become calm as they can now accept everything and start having intimate relations with the baby from the kicks.

Third Trimester

During the last three months of pregnancy, it’s time for you to prepare everything for the baby. Instead of worrying about pregnancy complications, you are probably starting to worry about labour and your baby’s arrival. For instance, anxiety would occur when worrying about natural or c-section delivery, perhaps the most challenging part of the pregnancy. During this period, mental support from friends and family is so important.

Meditation, counselling, talking to others, and getting more rest are ways to relieve stress. Also, getting massages while pregnant may help reduce stress and promote relaxation when undergoing psychological changes. Other than effectively lowering stress hormones, prenatal massage can improve blood circulation, and reduce swelling and back pain, which gives pregnant mummies a more comfortable period before the little one comes!

How to Physically and Mentally Prepare Yourself Before Birth

1. Research and Research a Little Bit More

Talk to your doctor, gynaecologist, and other experts and gather as much information as possible. It could be just to find out what programmes and facilities your local hospitals would prepare, which doctor would fit your criteria, basic preparations to welcome a newborn, or even learning ways to practise breathing in labour. You and your spouse can also join antenatal classes to equip yourselves with the skills new parents would need. 

Read up on other parents’ experiences and birth stories so you can expect what’s to come. Of course, while there’s no such thing as being ‘overly cautious’ when it comes to your little one, you should still make sure not to cause stress upon yourself when doing the research. Take your time to learn things one by one. 

2. Pamper Your Body

Now, this is an important one. Your body carries a growing infant for months before going into labour. It is important that you find a way to let your body relax and rest every now and then. And we don’t mean just resting and going to bed at the end of each day. You must set aside some time – maybe an hour or two every week – to get yourself pampered.

Prenatal massage is one ideal treatment in pregnancy that you might want to consider. Each pregnancy has different discomforts, but massage can often help ease your journey. 

Your body is mainly affected by water retention at this stage, so your legs might get cramped and become swollen easily. Carrying a baby bump can cause backaches, lower hip and leg pains, and muscle tension. Massage can target muscle knots and effectively eliminate the water retention effects, promoting a more convenient and comfortable pregnancy. A smooth pregnancy can certainly make you feel more physically and emotionally prepared for birth.

Need help with how to do prenatal massage or reluctant to go out, especially during the pandemic? Look for prenatal massage home services in Singapore, such as the service we at PNSG provide. Our in-home massage service will allow you to minimise movement out of your house and prevent the hassle of going back and forth to any massage parlour. Instead, our massage therapist will travel to your place to bring you a relaxing, authentic Javanese massage!

3. Gather a Support System

“If it takes a village to raise a child, it (also) takes a village to support that child’s parent.” – Ann Douglas. Isn’t this true? The responsibilities and duties of becoming a parent can be a lot and, at times, overwhelming. Unfortunately, since we are adults, we might think we are expected to figure things out completely. Even if some people around you truly believe this, don’t let it get in the way of you reaching out for help. 

Where there is any form of help or support you could get, grab it. Don’t let guilt take over you. It could be the mum’s guilt making you think that you are burdening the people around you or that you should be able to do motherhood without depending on other people, but this should not be the way. If you make things easy for your loved ones, why wouldn’t you also want to do that for yourself?

Hence, start looking for different kinds of help and support during pregnancy. Try listing what kind of support or any aspects of life you need help with. 

For instance, you might not want to cook in your confinement, so one option you could consider is to sign up for confinement meal delivery that will deliver your food every day. This way, you can remain focused on your recovery and newborn. You can also try looking out for a part-time helper who can occasionally come to keep your place clean and organised. 

If you have pets or older children, decide who will take care of them when you go into labour and pack their items way beforehand in case you have to go into early labour. When you have matters like these carefully planned out, you can anticipate postpartum confinement with peace of mind.

4. Keep a Pregnancy Journal

Keep track of your physical and mental changes along the way. It will not only help you become aware of what you are going through and the effects of pregnancy, but it can also help you find suitable help for it. You can also keep a list of what managed to help you overcome the unpleasant experiences during pregnancy. This way, when something does indeed happen during labour (e.g. different levels of contractions), you know what you can do, and you know what it indicates.

If you go through something similar after birth, you can flip through your journal to find all your previously tried-and-tested solutions. Seriously, this will be helpful to you later on down the way! And even if it doesn’t, wouldn’t it still be sweet to have something to remind you of what were the days of your pregnancy like? 

5. Feed Yourself Well

Make sure to follow a balanced diet throughout your pregnancy. To a certain extent, what you eat can directly affect your baby’s growth in the bump. You’ll be advised to take more calcium, folic acid, and iron and may be prescribed some prenatal vitamins by your doctor. Stick with what you are advised by the experts so that your body is well-fed and energised to bring your little one into this world.

There may be some restrictions when you get into labour, such as not eating or drinking much for hours long. Nearing your due date, only go with hydrating yourself and filling yourself up with all the good foods that will do their work to provide you with energy in labour. 

6. Take a break

Easier said than done, but it is really important to make sure that you DO get to relax when you’re pregnant. Stress can affect you in more ways than you know and sometimes can cause complications during delivery.

If you feel like you are starting to get negative thoughts or that you feel anxious as your EDD is nearing, take a step back and give yourself a break – a break from the hectic life, the overwhelming thoughts of your post-birth life, or simply from the difficulty of walking (i.e. waddling) with your growing baby bump.

For a start, you can simply meditate, do yoga, or go for a brisk walk. Try to avoid taking up any high-impact exercises. On the other hand, you can also opt for other therapy or treatment that you can get without having to exert too much energy – which brings us to our next point:

Closing words

Now, at this point, if you are curious and wondering, “How does a prenatal massage work?” and looking for affordable prenatal massage packages, or even if you are now reaching for your phone to Google “best pregnancy massage near me”, then all we have to say is head on over to our homepage and look through our packages for one that will suit you today!

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