Written By: Debjani Arora | Updated : February 25, 2016 1:27 PM IST
While everyone talks about the joys of pregnancy, the right diet to follow, exercise tips, books to read, but people seldom talk about the stress a woman can face during pregnancy. And if you are feeling overwhelmed, don t worry, you are not alone. Many women get stressed during pregnancy work-life balance, fear of labour pain, strain of pregnancy -- everything can take a toll. However, stress during pregnancy isn t good either for the mother or the baby. Here are nine ways to ease stress during the night months of pregnancy.
How stress affects pregnancy and childbirth
Here is how to control stress during pregnancy:
The best and easiest way to deal with stress during pregnancy is to mediate. Choose a quiet place and try to spend at least 10 minutes of your time meditating. Do it daily and diligently so that you can control your stress before it grows into a big snowball. In fact, there are studies that suggest pregnant women who engage in mind-body therapies like yoga and meditation along with proper prenatal care delivers babies with higher birth weight, has shorter duration of labour, less medical intervention during labour and recover soon from postpartum stress too [2]. Here are six gifts every new mum desires for.
In fact, another study further proved that mindfulness practises during pregnancy helped to ease pregnancy-induced stress and anxiety when you learn the techniques between 10 to 25 weeks of gestation [3], which means you can choose to meditate even if you are nearing the end of your second trimester and control your stress and help your baby to grow in a positive environment in your womb. Here are eight things you should do during your second trimester.
Things to remember
References
1. Lobel, M., Cannella, D. L., Graham, J. E., DeVincent, C., Schneider, J., & Meyer, B. A. (2008). Pregnancy-specific stress, prenatal health behaviors, and birth outcomes. Health Psychology, 27(5), 604.
2. 1: Beddoe AE, Lee KA. Mind-body interventions during pregnancy. J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs. 2008 Mar-Apr;37(2):165-75. doi: 10.1111/j.1552-6909.2008.00218.x.Review. PubMed PMID: 18336440.
3. 1: Guardino CM, Dunkel Schetter C, Bower JE, Lu MC, Smalley SL. Randomised controlled pilot trial of mindfulness training for stress reduction during pregnancy. Psychol Health. 2014;29(3):334-49. doi:10.1080/08870446.2013.852670. Epub 2013 Nov 1. PubMed PMID: 24180264; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4160533.
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