Stressed and pregnant? Avoid doing this!
With everyone being online all the time, it’s natural to seek out pregnancy pages or accounts to follow when pregnant. I actually highly encourage that! After all, I provide ton of useful content via Instagram. However, I often suggest pregnant mamas actually cut down on consumption of social media or media that increases fear around pregnancy or birth. This may seem obvious but it includes:
shows or movies that portray a negative pregnancy or birth - unfortunately sometimes you don’t know this until after the fact, but this is when watching re-runs of Grey’s Anatomy may not be wise!
social media accounts sharing negative or fear-inducing messaging - someone, we get sucked into the drama and reality TV influencer scene. However, find messaging that resonates with you and helps to uplift you. I promise you that knowing every possible worst-case-scenario will not prepare you and may actually increase your anxiety
online mom groups, Facebook groups or forums - this one is a bit tricky, so let me share more below
You may be thinking, “But why avoid them? I thought information was good! I thought it was good to be prepared! Aren’t birth stories good to hear?”
Well, the thing is… Some information is definitely crucial and I encourage everyone to be educated about their bodies, pregnancy and birth so they feel empowered in their own situation. However, someone else's experience of pregnancy and birth is not an indicator of how your own experience will go. We may think that more information from more sources is being "more prepared," but more information often just leads to more overwhelm, confusion, and anxiety. Online groups are notorious for misinformation and worst-case-scenarios too. Think about it - if you experienced a prolapse after your first child and you’re currently pregnant with your second child, you may have some fears around that. Perhaps you feel an online forum is a good way to crowdsource and to prepare for postpartum.
But here’s my question to you. Who’s more likely to join a prolapse online support group: someone who is healing well, or someone who is struggling in their postpartum recovery? The people doing well have moved on, and what you end up seeing online is a very biased worst-case-scenario view (which, might I add, doesn’t really help your growing nervousness around your pregnancy!)
So what do I encourage? Well, 4 things:
take pregnancy one day at a time
surround yourself with positive, uplifting and credible sources (sorry, but a random online forum ain’t it - follow me on IG)
remind yourself that you are doing your best
affirm to yourself: my body is capable, strong and resilient
Pregnancy is so hard. SO so hard. But it doesn’t suddenly make you weak or fragile.
If you need support from me during pregnancy, here are 3 ways you can do that:
Pelvic physiotherapy - manage pain, leaks and pelvic floor symptoms; prepare for birth and pushing; reduce risk of vaginal tears or adverse birth outcomes; prenatal and postpartum fitness
Virtual physiotherapy or caoching - convenient and effect online consults to help you strengthen your core and pelvic floor, prepare your body for a healthy pregnancy and birth, and manage symptoms.
Buy my 90-minute pregnancy and birth prep workshop replay - this would be great to watch with your birth partner!
