Pregnancy And Baby Stress |
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Having a baby can and should be one of the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences for a woman. Indeed many women, when asked to describe their immediate feelings on holding their newborn baby for the first time, say that it is as though the whole of their life suddenly seems to fall into place.
Pregnancy is one of the great life-changes, and as such can also be highly stressful, for wide-ranging reasons. It brings radical physical changes, as the mother's body system adapts to support the growing fetus, and these are accompanied by mood changes often quite pronounced.
On top of all this, there are likely to be feelings of apprehension - commonly associated with stress - especially in the case of a first baby; a mixture of very understandable anxiety about the actual labor and delivery, and an overall awareness that life will never be the same again.
The realization that you will be totally responsible for the welfare of a brand-new human being 24 hours a day for many years to come can be quite overwhelming! And there may also be financial worries, which as already seen frequently cause stress: having a baby, especially if you have been used to working in a job which you are giving up, even temporarily, can seem a remarkably expensive business.
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