Analysis Paralysis

Pregnancy can be a time riddled with anxiety. Here’s how to get out of your own head, writes Margot Bertelsmann

- Margot Bertelsmann

DO YOU FIND it hard to relax even at the best of times? Then pregnancy must be all kinds of fun for you: your whole life is about to change but you don’t really know the details of exactly how. What you do know is that you’ve committed to this change for life.

You’re essentially going to bring a little stranger home and promise to look after all his or her needs for the rest of their underage life, hoping that he or she will appreciate your efforts enough to return the favour in your twilight years. Even women who usually cruise through life on an even keel can be surprised to find they are feeling unfamiliar, unsettling sensations of uncertainty and lack of confidence during pregnancy.

It is, of course, completely normal. How could you not feel apprehensive about an uncertain future, no matter how much chill you got? Here are some top pre-parent concerns, and how to cope:

THE BIRTH

Many women obsess about the birth (at home or in hospital, with a midwife or a doc, whether to have a C-section or natural, who will be in the room with you, will you take drugs, and if not, will you survive the pain… and so on, and so on, and on and on). You know the day is coming – that baby has to come out somehow – and you’re scared. But this is actually a good thing – no, it really is!