Is It Normal To Feel Angry During Pregnancy
Some women experience irritability and even anger during pregnancy. Hormone changes are one reason for these mood swings. Just like some women experience irritability just before their period arrives every month, these same women may struggle with feelings of frustration and anger during pregnancy.
Additionally, when you aren’t feeling well, your ability to stay calm and collected is lower. As a result, pregnancy fatigue and physical discomfort is a big contributor to pregnancy anger. Keeping your temper under control when you feel constantly tired is challenging.
Then, there are some women who may have feelings of resentment during pregnancy because of their life situation. Maybe their finances aren’t where they want them to be, maybe they are facing stress on the job, or maybe they didn’t truly want to be pregnant. Perhaps their partner pressured them into having another baby when they weren’t ready, or maybe the pregnancy wasn’t planned.
While occasional feelings of frustration are normal, it’s important not to ignore anger if it’s frequent or interfering with your ability to cope with daily life. Some research has found that anger during pregnancy may impact the unborn child. One study found that prenatal anger was associated with reduced fetal growth rate.
High Blood Pressure And Dizziness During Early Pregnancy
In most cases, high or normal blood pressure will drop in the early stages of pregnancy. This may also cause feelings of dizziness since your blood vessels are dilated.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, as a result of pregnancy is more difficult to determine. Almost all cases of hypertension within the first 20 weeks indicate underlying problems. It may develop during early pregnancy, but it may also be present beforehand.
A medical professional will take your blood pressure during your first doctors visit to help establish a baseline for a normal blood pressure reading.
Talk To Your Loved Ones
Make sure your friends and family members understand how you are feeling and what you are going through. Explain to them that you might occasionally snap or react in a surprising way.
Talking about this can set you and your loved ones up for smoother communication should an issue arise.
You could also consider connecting with other expecting moms who can relate to your current status. Join a local community-based group or find your own virtual one via social media.
Feeling more prepared for pregnancy challenges and having support can .
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Your Feelings And Emotions During Pregnancy
During pregnancy you will probably feel many ups and downs. You may experience some or all of these emotions :
- surprise if your pregnancy is unexpected. You may then feel joy or fear or both
- happiness, particularly if you have been trying to have baby and you feel well
- anger, which can result from your bodys hormonal changes, from a sense of being vulnerable, or from pregnancy symptoms that are uncomfortable or painful
- fear for the babys health, if you have concerns about your baby having an illness or disability. If you are worried about a particular risk, talk to your midwife or doctor
- fear of birth, which is a recognised psychological disorder. Counselling and talking with your midwife or doctor can help you overcome this fear
- love for your baby, your partner and your family
- sadness or disappointment if you have illness or complications during your pregnancy, or you cant have the birth plan that you would prefer
- general sadness about the world, whereby you find it hard to watch the news or hear sad stories about children or families
- grief, if you suffer a miscarriage, a loss at a later stage of pregnancy, or a stillbirth
- prolonged sadness from perinatal depression. In this case, you will need the help of health specialists.
What Causes Pregnancy Mood Swings
There are a handful of reasons you may have mood swings during pregnancy hormones, sleep deprivation, and nagging anxiety form just the tip of the iceberg.
Rest assured that you are not just being dramatic, there are real physical, physiological, and mental explanations for this seemingly erratic behavior.
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Preparing For Being A Parent
It can be helpful for both expectant mums and dads to learn about ways to help themselves and others through this time of change.
Read parenting books, talk to family members and friends about their experiences as new parents and take some time to think about who might be able to provide support if you need it. It can help to develop a network with others who are also pregnant or who have children of a similar age.
While preparation is important, it is also good to remember that you can’t prepare for everything.
Try Yoga Or Meditation
Yoga and meditation can help reduce anxiety and increase feelings of well-being. There are many free meditation apps online to try. If you decide to take a yoga class, make sure it’s for pregnant women. Or, if you can’t find a prenatal yoga class, take a gentle or restorative yoga class, and talk to the yoga instructor before class begins about possible adjustments in positions.
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When Do Pregnancy Mood Swings Start
Emotional turbulence tends to hit hardest during the first trimester, as your body is adjusting to changing hormone levels. For some women, mood swings are one of the earliest signs of pregnancy, starting as soon as week 4.
Many pregnant people find that the highs and lows start to even out as their pregnancy progresses, only for the mood swings to ramp back up as they near their due date. Others find that their moods stay more sensitive throughout their entire pregnancy and thats normal, too.
Ways To Cope With Pregnancy Emotions
While it may seem overwhelming, there are many things you can do to cope and make your emotions more manageable.Some suggestions include:
- Self-care: Listen to your body and mind and be aware of what you need. If a bubble bath sounds relaxing, do it. If you need time alone to relax and read a book or get a pedicure, make time for it.
- Sleep: Getting 8 hours of good sleep can do amazing things for your emotional state. While this may not always be possible, do everything you can to get a healthy amount of sleep. You can experiment with sleeping positions, let your partner know if you are having difficulty sleeping so the two of you can come up with a plan to make sure you are getting the sleep you need.
- Diet: Like sleep, what you eat is a great natural way to help with your mood and emotions. Eating healthy and natural foods, instead of processed foods, promotes both physical and mental health, which contributes to increased emotional stability.
- Support: A supportive and encouraging group of people surrounding you is incredibly important during pregnancy. Making close family and friends aware of your emotions and having people to talk to when you feel overwhelmed is extremely helpful for your emotional health. In some cases, if you are having difficulty with your emotions, professional counseling may be an option to explore.
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Other Serious Issues During Pregnancy
Some pregnant women develop mental illnesses that are a significant risk to both them and their child. Other women may already have a mental illness that is more difficult to manage during pregnancy.
In particular, specialist health care is needed for pregnant women with:
- bipolar disorder , with manic highs and depression lows
- schizophrenia
- eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The risks include a loss of nutrition for your baby, an increased risk of miscarriage, and anaemia.
Whats The Deal With Forgetfulness And Pregnancy Brain
Believe it or not pregnancy-induced brain fog is a real thing.
Studies have found your brain actually changes during pregnancy. While preggo, your noggin increases activity in the side of the brain associated with emotional skills, and your brain-cell volume decreases during the third trimester.
It may cause you to forget appointments, remember where you left your phone, or what you opened the fridge to look for .
A lack of sleep may also make you feel zapped of energy, which your brain needs to stay more focused.
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Remember: Take A Test
The most important thing you can do if you feel you may be pregnant is take a pregnancy test. These are inexpensive and widely available. You can even find them sometimes at the dollar stores! There are also community resources available such as Planned Parenthood, where you can get a test for free if you cannot afford to pay.
If you are too shy to buy one yourself, ask a friend to pick one up for you. You can even buy them on Amazon. For your health and your baby’s health, it’s best to know as soon as you can if you are indeed pregnant. Buck up and get one!
When taken properly, home pregnancy tests are 99% accurate. Though some say you can take them up for five days before your missed period, the earlier you test, the more likely you are to get a false negative. If the test is negative and your period still doesnt come, try again.
She Noticed Changes In Her Breasts In Early Pregnancy And Things Began To Taste Strange At
I kept on wondering if my boobs had gotten bigger. I sort of felt like a little bit, like I looked in the mirror and just thought, My tits have gotten bigger. Have they’ve gotten bigger? I was just feeling a bit like that. And I was asking, asking my partner at the time, Is my -? – you know, I asked him, Are they? Do you reckon? Do you think they are? I was feeling a little bit like that, really. And also because I usually do get PMT as well so – and I had sort of PMT symptoms which had disappeared. So that was another thing as well. I didn’t actually, you know what I mean? I was feeling very stressed out, but I wasn’t feeling as stressed as I had been a couple of weeks earlier, so I thought maybe that was something. I wasn’t feeling particularly stressed. Things were tasting funny when I was eating. I didn’t like, I mean I didn’t associate it to be, associate it at the time and think I was pregnant, but if I had a drink I just sort of didn’t feel like drinking it any more, it tasted a bit funny. And because I smoked at the time as well, cigarettes tasted a bit funny as well. And it was just the boob thing and the fact that I realised I’d had no period since quite a few weeks that I thought I’d better go and check this. You just felt that there’s something going on here. So .
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Can Depression Be Cured
With treatment, most people recover from depression. Treatment can include one or more of the following:
- Social support: Community services or parenting education.
- Family therapy: With your partner and/or children. This can help when children are older.
- Individual therapy: Talking one-on-one with a family doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker, or other professional.
- Medication: Drugs used most often to treat depression are SSRIs .
How Can I Handle My Fluctuating Moods
The mood swings are triggered by the hormone overflow and are exacerbated by things occurring in your daily life hence why you may behave differently than you usually do when certain things happen to you.
To help with the mood swings, try these tips:
- Eat well
- Spend time with people you love
- Exercise
The most important thing is to understand what the emotional changes are and where they come from. You will be able to adjust and get through them, as long as you know what is causing them and can work around it with some of the tips provided. The nine months of pregnancy will seem like the longest nine months of your life, and youll likely feel like a completely different person but, all you need to do is relax, think positively, and remember that each day will bring you closer to holding that beautiful baby in your arms.
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Seek Out Social Support
Strong social support during the prenatal period is critical, whether this support comes from a spouse, other family members, parents, or friends. Previous research from 1976 has shown that social support can have a protective effect against the negative health consequences of life stress. Another study published in 1991 found that social support in the time leading up to and following birth had an important positive impact on a mother’s postpartum mental health.
Additionally, social support during pregnancy is thought to improve birth outcomes by lowering the risk of preterm birth. How? Social support is believed to both reduce anxiety and stress as well as improve stress coping mechanisms. While one study published in 2015 found that such social support did not have a direct effect on lowering preterm birth, the researchers did believe that such support could act as a sort of buffering mechanism between prenatal stress and premature delivery.
So what can you do to ensure that you have the tangible, emotional, and informational support that you need before, during, and after pregnancy?
Symptoms And Feelings In Early Weeks
In the first few weeks of pregnancy, various physical symptoms and new emotions arise. Although many women felt some anxiety during these early weeks, and some found it hard to believe it was really happening to them, there was also joy and excitement. .Unpleasant physical symptoms affected people’s feelings in the early weeks of pregnancy. Nausea and sometimes vomiting is well known as ‘morning sickness’, but these symptoms can happen all day, and can occasionally be very severe. Because this is so common, it has a separate section on the website .Another common symptom is feeling tired or run down. Some people are surprised to feel so exhausted. Others include getting a strange taste in your mouth, having tender breasts, feeling dizzy or faint, and abdominal cramps or twinges. To some people it felt a bit like premenstrual tension at first. But some women we talked to felt physically fine during the first few weeks, or noticed only minor changes.
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Mentally Prepare Your Other Children
The mental groundwork for pregnancy can become even more challenging when you also need to psychologically prepare your older children for the arrival of a new sibling. Some kids may eagerly await a younger brother or sister, but emotional responses such as fear, jealousy, and anxiety are also quite common.
You can help your children mentally prepare for your pregnancy by making sure to set aside time and attention for each of your kids. Make them feel that they will have an important part both in your pregnancy and that they can help you get ready for the new baby. Picking out baby items, helping you prepare a space for the baby, and even talking about baby names can help older siblings feel included.
Just be careful not to put too much pressure on your other children and don’t make them feel that their emotional responses, even if those reactions might be negative, are wrong or bad. Acceptance, attention, and unconditional positive regard can go a long way toward helping your older kids feel excited about the possibility of another child in the family.
Morning Sickness Nausea And Vomiting During Early Pregnancy
Nausea and morning sickness usually develop around weeks 4 to 6 and peak around week 9.
Although its called morning sickness, it can occur anytime during the day or night. Its unclear exactly what causes nausea and morning sickness, but hormones may play a role.
During the first trimester of pregnancy, many women experience mild to severe morning sickness. It may become more intense toward the end of the first trimester, but often becomes less severe as you enter the second trimester.
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What Should I Do To Treat My Mood Swings
It is important to understand you are not alone mood swings are just another aspect of the pregnancy experience. Knowing that what you are experiencing is normal and somewhat expected may help you cope.
The following list includes ways to manage your stress level:
- Get plenty of sleep
- Take a break during the day to relax
- Get regular physical activity
- Spend time with your partner
- Take a nap.
- See a movie with a friend
- Dont be so hard on yourself
- Get a massage
Second Trimester Mood Swings
The second trimester of pregnancy is often called the honeymoon phase. Hormones are still changing but much less so than during the first three months. Most women feel more energy and dont have morning sickness any moreor at least, its not as bad.
Still, there are potential emotional triggers. For one, during the second trimester, the body shape changes really kick in. Some women can avoid maternity clothing during the first trimester, but by the second, the need for extra room is unavoidable.
Some women feel excited about their body changes. Finally, they dont have to pull their stomach in! But others can feel anxious. This is especially true for women who have a history of body image struggles.
Prenatal testing during the second trimester also can cause emotional distress. Amniocentesis, when recommended, is usually done during the early second trimester. Deciding whether or not to have prenatal testing, and anxiety about the results, can cause emotional distress.
Another thing that can lead to mood swings is reading about everything that can possibly go wrong during pregnancy and childbirth. Some pregnancy books are more like long lists of every possible complication. This can occur during any trimester of pregnancy, of course.
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