WAYS TO REDUCE STRESS DURING PREGNANCY

Pregnancy is a life-changing event. Everything you have known until now is changing as you bring a new life into this world — your body is changing, your emotions are out of whack, and the lives of people around you are changing, too. While some of these may be welcome changes, stressing about some of them is only natural. You may have your job to think about, your finances to check, a million things to get ready before the baby arrives, and a whole lot more. But too much stress can send you down a spiral that may lead to sleep issues, not eating enough, or eating more than you need.

High stress levels during pregnancy will not only affect you long term — it can cause high blood pressure and heart disease — it could also impact your baby, big time. It can increase the chances of having a baby born too early (before 37 weeks) or too small (weighing less than 5.5 pounds), and that may lead to lifelong health issues for your child. Avoiding all stress, however, isn’t always practical, so it’s important to find ways to cope. Here’s what you can do.

GET MOVING

Getting your heart pumping and your muscles moving can have all kinds of beneficial effects during pregnancy. It can help you sleep better, maintain a healthy weight, and balance out the effect stress can have on the brain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends everyone get at least 2.5 hours of physical activity a week — even pregnant women. Ideally, this would be spread out in 30-minute or even 10-minute increments, rather than all at once.

It should be noted that while light to moderate physical activity is safe for most pregnant women, it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor about what kinds of exercises (and how much) are safe for you personally. If you are able to exercise safely, there are plenty of great ways to stay active throughout pregnancy — all of which can help boost your mood — including:

Modified yoga and modified pilates
Swimming and water workouts
Stationary bicycling
Walking

If you are an experienced athlete in a sport, you may be able to continue some of those activities during pregnancy. Discuss these at your next prenatal care appointment.

REST WHEN YOU CAN

Exercise is great, but so is resting when you need to. Your body is going through a ton of changes, and building a person can get exhausting. Being tired can make it harder to manage your stress effectively, so taking a breather could help both your body and brain recharge.

This is especially true in the second and third trimesters, when it can be tough to get a good night’s sleep (hello, squished bladder!). If you’re fortunate enough to be able to take a nap in the middle of the day, do it, girl.

BE MINDFUL

When you’re stressing about something, it’s natural to want to force it out of your mind. But that can actually backfire. Instead of pushing those feelings down, try facing them head on with a technique called mindful meditation. It works a little like this:

Find a quiet place to sit or lie down.
Close your eyes or find a single focal point in the room.
Take long, slow, deep breaths, paying extra close attention to the way it feels when you breathe in and exhale.
Let your mind do its thing. If a stressful thought pops into your head, instead of forcing yourself to think about something else, embrace it, and then… let it go. It often helps to visualize that process in a way that’s a little more concrete, such as taking the thought and releasing it like a balloon, packing it into a box, or washing it away — whatever works for you.

CALL IN A LIFELINE

You are a strong, beautiful woman, but you don’t have to do this all on your own. Try to find people in your life to serve as buffers or sounding boards for the stress in your life. Find those people who don’t mind a good venting session and put those angels on speed dial. If there’s someone who drives you crazy, ask a mutual friend or relative to run interference or step in to fight battles when you just can’t.

If you don’t have people like that in your life (or even if you do), new mom groups can help you express frustrations, feel supported, and get advice from other moms going through similar situations. The Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies, for example, offers a weekly group run by a licensed clinician for new moms and pregnant women to talk about their stresses and anxieties related to parenthood and pregnancy. If you’re interested, register, or call 321-841-5615 for more information.

TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR

If you feel like your stress is overwhelming or just too intense, there might be something else going on. Pregnancy causes a lot of changes in the body, including inside the brain. For some women, these changes can leave them feeling extremely anxious or depressed — especially if they don’t have a lot of support from a partner or they’ve recently experienced a tragedy.