Reducing Stress During Pregnancy: Top Tips To Help You Stay Calm

Now, we all know that pregnancy is a magical, transformative time full of hope and expectation. But what can come as a bit of a surprise is that it can also be uncomfortable, exhausting and even stressful. We are sent on a rollercoaster in pregnancy (and one we know is going to end with either screaming or surgery) while being told that we’ll be positively glowing throughout.

This expectation can throw the sometimes queasy reality into sharp relief, and leave us feeling as though we are somehow failing at this very first step of motherhood – but the truth is everyone encounters troubles of one kind or another during pregnancy. Those hormone dips and surges are no joke, and you may find yourself feeling rather more stressed and irritable than you might have imagined.

There’s little doubt that keeping stress to a minimum during pregnancy is the most ideal thing for both you and your growing baby, but feeling guilty about any stress you experience is one surefire way to make it worse. So how can you keep a lid on stress without stressing about it?

While it’s impractical to suggest it’s possible to achieve an easy state of bliss throughout your entire pregnancy, here’s a few tips to get you a few steps closer.

Step Up Your Self Care

We all know that we should be kind to ourselves and take steps to ensure our wellbeing is always a priority, but it’s more important than ever not to let this slide when you are busy growing a new human. From the simple things (like making sure you don’t skip meals or force yourself to socialise if you don’t feel like it) to treating yourself to complementary therapies like a relaxing massage, now is the time to really put your health and happiness – and by extension, your baby’s – first.

Listen to Your Body

We can become so used to pushing ourselves through tiredness and stress that it is hard to break the habit, even when we become pregnant. By learning to listen to what your body is telling you – and more often than not, it will be demanding that you put your feet up – you can put an end to the workhorse mentality that leaves so many of feeling drained and frazzled. So if all you want to do is curl up with a good book one afternoon, follow that intuition, and get the rest you need.

Utilise Meditation

It goes without saying that here at Beeja we’re fans of meditation and its many benefits, but it really is a fantastic tool for every stage of life, and can be especially helpful during pregnancy. Meditation is an effortless way to reduce stress hormones and bring quiet to your days, giving your baby the best start and keeping you balanced at this sometimes sensitive time.

When babies are developing inside the womb, they are learning through signals in their mum’s body about the world which awaits them outside. High levels of stress hormones, therefore, are thought to influence the development of children in the womb and make them more highly attuned to stress. This is why meditation’s power to significantly reduce the physical, as well as mental, effects of stress can be of such profound benefit, helping to relieve anxiety even before a person has entered the world.

Try Not to Take On Too Much

Unfortunately, if you feel like you are often picking up the slack in thankless tasks such as household chores, it’s pretty likely that you might be right. Studies have shown that women enjoy 5 hours less leisure time a week than their male partners – due primarily to unpaid labour – as unconscious gender roles have filtered down from the generations above us and gone on to influence the way we behave, even in this modern age.

No one is to blame to falling into familiar patterns of behaviour, but you have every right to address any imbalance you encounter, and reassign tasks to more evenly spread the burden of everyday life admin across your family unit. You’ll win no prizes for being superwoman, and you may be surprised just how willing your nearest and dearest are to offer support.

Lessen Daily Aggravators

There are things we do every day that can send our stress levels rocketing – whether its trying to get to work or checking our bank balance. Unfortunately, life can’t be put on hold in favour of a nine-month holiday when we fall pregnant (oh, if only!), but we can take steps to lessen these daily aggravators.

For example, you could talk you your boss about your commute – something which can become even more stressful the more heavily pregnant you grow. Find it if it’s possible for you to travel outside of the rush hour, and if you take the train or tube, make sure to use “baby on board” badges so you can get a seat.

Alternatively, if you find yourself often bothered by money worries, you can write a list of everything you need for the baby and ask friends and family if they have any hand-me-downs, taking off a bit of the financial pressure to get everything brand new.

Whatever your particular stressors are, investigate the practical ways you can reduce them during pregnancy, and you will quickly find your days are spent far more calmly than even seems possible.