Being Pregnant

Being pregnant means something different to everyone. While many women are excited and looking forward to the whole pregnancy experience, others may find pregnancy scary.

Previous Miscarriage Experience

Women who have experienced a Miscarriage or Ectopic Pregnancy may naturally face their next pregnancy fearing a repeat of the previous incident. While the odds of having a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy increase each time a woman has one, worrying about the outcome of your next pregnancy can lead to more problems than solutions. Worry, and the stress that accompanies it, can lower a woman’s immunities, and according to March of Dimes, lead to premature labor and low birth rates.

The key to handling stress is learning good stress relief techniques, such as Pregnancy Exercise, massage, Pregnancy Diet, gaining knowledge about pregnancy in general and about those areas of pregnancy that are causing the stress, and developing a good support network. Fertility Plus offers a treasure trove of support resources.

Highs of Being Pregnant

Being pregnant can also be a very uplifting experience. There is nothing more life affirming than the birth of a baby. It will change your life forever. For nine months, you watch you body change, to metamorphasize into the perfect vessel for nurturing a growing fetus. Over time, the baby begins to move, to make his presence known. He may kick more early in the morning or after you eat a particularly large meal. He becomes a real person in your eyes long before the actual birth. And the fun does not stop there. Over the years, you will watch him grow and learn, and develop his own opinions and ways of doing things. Best of all, you will know you are instrumental in creating the adult he will some day become.

Labor and Delivery Stories

Being pregnant inevitably leads to other women sharing their labor and childbirth stories. Many of these stories are meant to be a bonding experience but sound more like horror stories that are meant to scare you into a perpetual state of pregnancy rather than ever experiencing the miracle of childbirth. Without presuming any of the Birth Stories you hear are the equivalent of "the one that got away" stories, often they are told as a badge of courage and may be exaggerated for effect. The thing to remember about these shared stories is that your childbirth experience will be unique. Each woman’s threshold for pain is difference, and each baby arrives on its own timetable.

Commitment

Being pregnant is a commitment that should not be entered into without a lot of thought, not only to how it will affect your life for the next nine months, but how having a child will affect the rest of your life. Take the time to do your homework before getting pregnant. Review the Cost of Having a Baby and consider how a baby will fit into your current lifestyle. Do not look at having a baby as a quick fix for a bad marriage. Adding more variables to an already volatile situation seldom solves anything. If after reviewing the big picture covering getting pregnant, being pregnant, and raising a child, you still want to have a baby, then you can at least enter into the world of parenthood knowing it is the best decision for you.