There are all sorts of stresses and strains during pregnancy. Expectant mothers worry about every little feeling or pain while others try to handle so much that they forget about themselves. It’s time to reduce your pregnancy anxiety and stress. Here are five tips to help you manage that effectively.
Start Saying “No” More Often
Let’s get thing’s straight right now: you’re not Wonder Woman. You will not be expected to handle anything and everything. Those that do expect it are unreasonable and have no idea what it’s like being pregnant.
When you know you just can’t do anymore, you need to say “no.” You don’t need to take everything on and handle it all yourself. If you’ve no choice but to say yes, such as at work, find ways to delegate tasks and push off other things that aren’t as necessary.
There are all sorts of stresses and strains during pregnancy. Expectant mothers worry about every little feeling or pain while others try to handle so much that they forget about themselves. It’s time to reduce your pregnancy anxiety and stress. Here are five tips to help you manage that effectively.
Start Saying “No” More Often
Let’s get thing’s straight right now: you’re not Wonder Woman. You will not be expected to handle anything and everything. Those that do expect it are unreasonable and have no idea what it’s like being pregnant.
When you know you just can’t do anymore, you need to say “no.” You don’t need to take everything on and handle it all yourself. If you’ve no choice but to say yes, such as at work, find ways to delegate tasks and push off other things that aren’t as necessary.
Put Yourself First
Every day, find a time to spend on yourself. Treat yourself to a long soak in the bath or grab a cup of green tea and read a good book. You can pamper yourself. In fact, you should pamper yourself to reduce the pregnancy anxiety that you feel.
Your baby will appreciate the break too. Without you moving around so much, your little one won’t be sent to sleep all the time. You baby will be able to get a few kicks in and listen to your voice to get to know you before “meeting” you.
Start Deep Breathing Techniques
It’s time to learn more about deep breathing for relaxation. When you start to feel anxiety creeping in, you can use the deep breathing techniques to settle your mind and keep the stress to a minimum. This doesn’t mean meditation, but this can also be good for unwinding and relaxing.
Some expectant mothers will do pregnancy yoga. Not only do you get the deep breathing techniques, but a little bit of exercise, too. This leads us to the next tip.
Do a Bit of Exercise
Exercise is great for reducing the stress and anxiety levels. You don’t want to suddenly start training for a marathon, but it is worth doing some light swimming or walking. This will depend on the pain that you feel during pregnancy. Talk to your doctor about all your exercise options right now.
Exercise isn’t just good for reducing pregnancy anxiety. You’ll have a healthier body for your baby, and will find labour and delivery so much easier.
Don’t Read the Pregnancy Books Too Much
You want to be educated about the things that are happening this week in your baby’s life, but your reading can go too far. You’ll find out about all the horror stories if you keep going through pages on the internet. Yes, you may be tempted to use Dr. Google for any symptoms you have, but resist the urge and talk to your real doctor instead.
Talk to friends about their experiences. If you want to hear the horror stories, let them know. Otherwise, ask them if there are any positive experiences to help put your mind at ease. There will always be something that they can think of that was great during their pregnancies. Too much negativity will just increase the anxiety.
Pregnancy should be a fun time, and you can help by reducing the anxiety levels. Follow the above five tips and you’ll keep your baby and yourself healthy. Spend some time on yourself, because you’ll find it comes by very little in the first few months with a newborn in the house.