Pregnancy

There is no “right” way to feel when you are expecting a baby. No one else will have the same pregnancy experience as you. There will be good times and not-so-good times. Accepting your feelings will help you to have a less stressful nine months. It is also important to have a strong support system -- people who will let you talk about your ambivalence, your fears, and your joys without passing judgment. Having a baby is a major transition in life -- one that requires patience, understanding, and openness to new experiences.

Extraordinary things happen to your body during pregnancy. Until you’ve been pregnant, you can’t know how easy or how hard it will be for you. And every pregnancy is different, even for the same woman. Some women love every minute of being pregnant. Their skin glows, they have boundless energy, and they feel more beautiful and sexual than ever before. These lucky women say that they have never felt better in their lives. For others pregnancy is a struggle. The morning sickness that occurs morning, noon, and night seems as if it will never end. There are backaches, stretch marks, and varicose veins. For those women, those nine months seem to last longer than any other nine months in their lifetime.

Along with the physical challenges that come with pregnancy, there are also emotional ones. The transition from prepregnancy to motherhood requires psychological adaptation. Realizing that conflicts and strong new feelings are normal can help make the changes easier to accept and to work through.

During the first trimester in particular, the physical demands of pregnancy can be psychologically overwhelming. Over time, I have found that women face three types of challenges as their bodies begin to adapt to the demands of growing a baby: the physical ones brought about by the enormous hormonal swings of pregnancy; the psychological challenges of changing relationships within the family and with the world; and the loss of identity many women experience when they realize that they are no longer in control of their bodies or their minds.

--from Understanding Your Moods When You're Expecting, Chapters 1 and 2.
 

View a chart of FDA Drug Categories for Use in Pregnancy with examples of drugs used.