Pregnancy brings about drastic fluctuation in hormones; including mood swings and anxiety. It can be a joyous, overwhelming, terrifying, and transforming journey to becoming a mother. Maintaining a healthy balance of emotions is the key to a happy (and of course healthy) baby. Women’s mental health can greatly impact the outcome and demeanor of their unborn baby.
Throughout pregnancy it is important to identify core issues that may have impacted your own growth and development. Being mindful of your own emotional wellbeing and beginning a therapeutic journey may help you throughout your new journey to motherhood. Exploring past issues and resolving them before the baby arrives can put you at a greater advantage to bond and create secure attachment with your baby.
Mindfulness is the first key. As mothers, we have intuition about our babies and their needs. We need to turn on that intuition early in pregnancy and turn it towards ourselves. This can help us to identify where we need to concentrate in terms of our own mental health.
Identifying past issues and resolving them can help create a more stable environment for when your baby arrives. Do you and your partner continuously have the same fight? Do you never get along with your in laws? These are things that are important to work on now! Family and those peripheral relationships are the backbone for your child’s life. Increasing positive familial relationships will help give you support throughout your pregnancy and love and support when the baby arrives.
Trust yourself. Pregnancy is a rollercoaster of emotions and hormones. It is important to trust in your decisions that led you to this point. Trust in your partner and family members, and most importantly, trust yourself. Whether you wanted to be in this situation or not, if you have decided to stay, stay. Make smart choices and follow through. This will increase your perseverance and improve your motherhood qualities in the future.
Cultivate a positive mindset. It is hard to think positive when your bloated, gaining weight, nauseous, sore, or all of the above. However, our mindset can be directly correlated to how we feel. Utilizing positive affirmations can increase our productivity and get us through a tough day. Creating your own personal affirmations is a crucial piece of the puzzle. Where do your thoughts turn negative? Turn those negative thoughts into positive ‘I’ statements to generate healthy and positive feelings. As your baby grows, it will notice the difference between a happy womb and an unhappy womb.
All of these tools can help improve mental health from the beginning of pregnancy. In turn, it will help you put your best foot forward into the realm of motherhood. It is important to prepare yourself physically and mentally for the changes that life is bringing you. Utilizing these tools will help create a positive atmosphere for your growing baby to thrive.
KC Putterman LMHC,HC
