Stress during pregnancy + tips (also for fathers)

Being pregnant is something incredibly precious and something we mostly cherish. Danger, according to most people, should not be an issue at all during pregnancy, but it is precisely during this period that you are also extra keen on danger, which can make you stressed by your pregnancy. On the other hand, other external factors such as losing your job can also cause you to experience a lot of stress.

To find out what stress does during pregnancy, what effects it has and what you can do about it, I will go into more detail about stress during pregnancy in this article.

Stress and pregnancy

Pregnancy is the time when you stop living just for yourself for a while. You suddenly have to worry about all sorts of things, such as whether your diet is healthy enough. If you want to exercise, which sports can you still do and which cannot?

All these choices allow you to experience small moments of stress.

Stress during pregnancy is actually quite normal. You usually get small flare-ups of stress, but they usually go away again and you can relax in between.

If it becomes more chronic stress you may have a problem. This is because long-term stress causes your body to deal with stress in a different way, causing higher levels of inflammation in your body.

Those inflammatory levels can prevent your child from developing optimally in the womb.

Pregnancy and anxiety

Fears play a major role in causing stress during pregnancy. For example, not having your financial situation or relationship with the father or other family members in order can cause a lot of anxiety about the future.

When this anxiety is continuously present and continuously causing stress, it is very annoying.

Effects of stress during pregnancy

If you’re reading this because you’re worried about the effects of stress during pregnancy, after reading this paragraph, you’ll be able to relax fully and take time off when needed. Stress during pregnancy can be problematic for your baby. Stress increases the risk of ADHD and impaired cognitive development.

In 10 to 15% of cases, stress during pregnancy affects child development. So in most cases, almost 9 times out of 10, stress does not have to affect your child's development, but at 1 or 1.5 times out of 10 it can affect your child's mental development( 1).

In addition, due to stress, your child is 25% more likely to suffer from age-related diseases earlier in life than people whose mothers were less stressed. Again, it can be seen that this is a minority( 2).

Therefore, try not to let stress during pregnancy get out of control.

Miscarriage due to stress

Stress just before conception and in the first months of pregnancy can cause miscarriage. We are talking about very high levels of stress. This stress can release a hormone that causes contractions, which normally do not occur until the end of pregnancy. These hormones are released locally.

In miscarriage, they are also released to cells that then have an allergic reaction. This reaction causes everything you need in the womb for a healthy pregnancy to be kicked into overdrive, thus causing you to miscarry.

Women who have already had a miscarriage often have an increased release of these hormones than women who have not had a miscarriage. Women who have light children also tend to have an increased release of these hormones than women with heavier children( 3).

Doctors are now developing drugs that block the response of cells to these hormones to reduce the chances of miscarriage. Until then, it is important to minimize stress.

Depression during pregnancy

Depression during pregnancy is actually less harmful to the unborn child than stress during pregnancy. A meta-analysis shows that there is a higher risk of preterm birth and that breastfeeding may be more difficult, but these risks are very small ( 4).

However, the risk of your child developing depression by age¹⁸ is slightly higher than for mothers who are not depressed during pregnancy. In addition, there is also a higher risk of postpartum depression.( 5)

One interesting difference, however, is that mothers with lower education were more likely to experience postpartum depression than mothers with higher education. Also, children of more educated mothers were less likely to have depression at age ¹⁸ than children of less educated mothers.

Dealing with stress during pregnancy

As you have read, it is important to regain peace of mind after stress in order not to suffer negative consequences from stress during pregnancy. There are several things you can do to de-stress during pregnancy.

1. Take state of the art

Initially, take a moment to assess how stressed you are and whether you have any moments when you are not stressed. Consider why you are stressed and if there is anything you can do about it. If it is beyond your control at the moment you might as well not worry about it.

2. Meditate

Meditating daily is incredibly helpful for reducing stress. There are several types of meditation you can try. Once you’ve found a type that suits you—such as mindfulness meditation—you can practice it daily to lower your stress hormones.

3. Pregnancy Yoga

Yoga is the way to keep moving while relaxing. However, it is important to take pregnancy yoga because some normal yoga poses are not healthy for someone who is pregnant.

4. Sing or hum along

Music helps to regulate cortisol, stress hormones. By singing or humming along, you can already do a lot to keep it down. Even if you can't sing, that husband of yours should put in earplugs.

5. Pamper Yourself

Take a bath, watch a nice movie, read a good book, make a pot of tea. Pamper yourself while you still can. When you have a baby that suddenly becomes a lot harder.

6. Use self-hypnosis

For proper use of self-hypnosis, it is wise to first see a hypnotherapist. If you find it difficult to relax, he/she can teach you techniques specifically applicable to your situation, especially with hypnotic suggestions.

One technique you can always apply is visualization. For this technique, you first sit or lie down in a nice comfortable place. Your favorite corner on the couch or snug in bed. You close your eyes and take deep breaths through the belly. Your belly then moves when you breathe instead of your chest, if you are further along in pregnancy this is difficult and then just deep breathing is sufficient.

Focusing on your breathing allows you to relax. You can enhance that relaxation by visualizing being in a nice place with your eyes closed. This is slightly different for everyone. Some examples of fine places are:

• Warm day on a sunny beach with a light breeze.
• Warm to cool day in the woods.
• In a meadow full of flowers next to a babbling brook.

It can also be a cozy room by a fireplace. For everyone, a nice relaxing place can mean something different. You can hold this visualization for a while to relax wonderfully.

Partner of stressed pregnant

Instead, are you the partner of a stressed pregnant woman? Then it is especially important to keep triggers of stress away from her and support her. Research shows that mothers who felt supported during pregnancy were much less likely to suffer from postpartum depression, and also that the children of mothers who felt supported coped with stress much better than children of an unsupported mother( 6).

Therefore, I also have some tips for future fathers or partners of pregnant women.

1. Give her a massage

Preferably all day long. No, but a massage can do an awful lot to relieve stress. In the process, it also relaxes those muscles that suddenly have to carry extra weight.

2. Tell her she's beautiful once in a while

Yes because that is also something she suddenly starts to care about. So even though she looks like a whale, she's beautiful.

3. Reassure her about the future

You probably have all kinds of concerns yourself about fatherhood, finances and the like, but your stress hormones don't affect the baby as much as hers. So you can tell her that she's going to be a great mom and why and that even if things aren't quite perfect financially, the child really isn't going to notice.

4. Ask her what to do

To really make her feel that you are supporting her, you can ask her from time to time if you are doing well and if not what to do. Good communication ultimately works best.

Would you like to learn more about mental techniques for reducing stress to help yourself or others? Then check out the courses offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands or attend a seminar.

Sources:

http://www.bestpracticeobgyn.com/article/S1521-6934(13)00132-6/abstract?cc=y=

http://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(12)02088-1/abstract

http://www.webmd.com/infertility-and-reproduction/news/20030605/how-stress-causes-miscarriage

http://www.psychiatrist.com/jcp/article/Pages/2013/v74n04/v74n0405.aspx

http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/1748838

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201211/partners-pregnant-women-impact-newborns-health