Stress can be very harmful during pregnancy, though cannot be totally avoided in everyday life. As a pregnant woman high stress level can be major problem that affects every area of your life, which will in turn affect the growth and development of your unborn baby. You may be worrying what your labor would be like, how you will handle the pain, how your partner will cope and all the rest. Knowing the causes of your stressful feeling is powerful information, which means you can take action to make it less intense.
Negative Effects of Stress During Pregnancy
There are many negative side effects of stress during pregnancy. Studies show that high levels of stress can result to chronic anxiety, increase your heart rate, blood pressure, and also contribute to an increased risk of premature delivery or low birth weight babies. Remember that just as what you eat affects your unborn baby, so too does your high stress level and your emotional health. It is important that you minimize your stress and anxiety during pregnancy for the betterment of your baby’s growth and development.
Here are 5 simple ways to get you started in managing stress during pregnancy. You can even adopt many of these ways after pregnancy to ensure your stress level remains manageable.
1. Share your feelings
The idea that ”no man is an Island” is so true, if you talk less about your stressful situations the stress will build up and can cause devastating health problems during your pregnancy period. By sharing your own feeling with your partner, mother, sister, friend or your doctor to get the right advice and support is a great way of dealing with stress. When you talk about your fears and concern with the people who care much about you, it will help you get reassured and feel more confident.
2. Eat well
A healthy diet which includes vitamins and minerals can help keep stress under control by suppressing stress hormones. You should eat food rich in vitamin B, whole grain bread, oats, wheat germ, lean meat, nuts, fruits and vegetables etc. Having a well balanced diet during pregnancy is good for your health and for the normal growth and development of your baby and also helps to store up energy and rule out stress.
3. Take proper rest
One of the most common reasons for stressful behaviors and feelings is as a result of lack of sleep. You should follow a definite sleeping pattern to get a proper amount of sleep, so that your body will have time to recover from the day activities and enable you to feel better. Don’t wait until you get too much exhausted before you go to sleep.
4. Exercise regularly
Safe pregnancy exercise is a great way to release stressful feelings while making you look and feel better. If you don’t have a special hobby that interests you find one. You will reduce stress when you take your minds off your everyday activities and responsibilities. A hobby could be writing journals, painting, reading funny stories etc or you can as well practice daily 10-15 minutes walk in the fresh air.
5. Relaxation
Staying fit during pregnancy is very important; relaxation is a natural stress reduction technique and should be a daily routine. You should not only focus on your responsibilities, try to relax and think logically about whatsoever situation you are facing. If something does happen to go wrong, look at it as a learning experience so it won’t happen again.
Having fun and laughter is one of the body’s best ways of relaxing, watch a funny movies with your partner or go to the cinema.
As you can see it’s not impossible to manage stress, all you should know is that stress is everyday issue and will not be away anytime soon, therefore knowing how to manage your stress will make great changes to your health and lifestyle. By so doing, you will have a healthier pregnancy.
