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It must be said honestly: nothing will prepare a woman for pregnancy and parenthood. It is an experience so personal and individual that mother’s or friends’ advice will not help. However, it is worth getting ready for the decision itself, and then for the situations that may happen during pregnancy. So how to prepare for pregnancy in this context?
How to prepare for pregnancy? – conscious decision
Long before a woman begins to physically prepare for pregnancy, she should admit to herself the importance of motherhood for her. Perhaps the point is that the friends already have children or the grandmother blames the lack of children, or maybe quite the opposite – parentage is important for a woman, but she does not feel that it is a good time.
It’s a good idea to sit down and answer a set of questions honestly. In preparation for pregnancy and motherhood, the reasons for wanting to become a mother should be identified:
- will the baby give you happiness and make your life complete?
- Will parenting increase your self-esteem?
- can you no longer wait for motherhood because of your age?
- Is the pressure from the environment the reason for preparing for pregnancy and being a mother?
In addition, in mental preparation for pregnancy, you should confront your professional ambitions with motherhood:
- can the birth of a child negatively affect your career and will the possible losses be devastating for you?
- will the child limit you?
- Can you afford to raise a child financially?
Equally important in preparing for pregnancy is to organize your relationship with your partner:
- can a child change your relationship – will it strengthen or weaken your relationship?
- how do you envision your relationship (including responsibilities) after the baby is born?
Many women experience anxiety when preparing for pregnancy. Therefore, it is appropriate to analyze some scenarios first (although you do not necessarily have to worry about them – stress is not good for pregnancy):
- are you afraid of almost irreversible changes in your body after pregnancy?
- are you concerned about problems with getting pregnant, miscarriages or fetal defects?
Check out how the pregnancy calculator works
How to prepare for pregnancy – solutions
You can answer yes or no to each of the above questions, and neither is wrong. But what if the maternal instinct is strong, but preparation for pregnancy is made difficult by numerous dilemmas?
For example, the career so far. The world does not stand still, and in many companies a year of absence can be difficult to make up for. This will be especially difficult for women who want to prepare for pregnancy in or after 35 years of age. Their hard work has brought some success, so they are afraid to waste it. However, is this not a pretext for new challenges?
See what pregnancy looks like week by week
It is similar with the fear of finances. Solution? While preparing for pregnancy, you can open a savings account and save money gradually.
Before the child is born, the “rainy day” amount will be collected on the account.
On the other hand, when it comes to a relationship, it can be much more complicated. When there is uncertainty about the future father and his approach to parenting, there are three ways. The first is to let go and accept the situation. According to the second, you can prepare a guy for pregnancy through conversation or thought experiments. The third, the most drastic, is ending the relationship and looking for a person who will turn out to be much more responsible.
How to prepare for pregnancy?
When preparing for pregnancy, there are a few situations that will surely happen:
- Your body will change – you will have to buy bigger clothes, maybe stretch marks will appear, skin condition will worsen,
- complaints such as nausea, dizziness or sleepiness,
- deterioration of concentration and memory.
And how to prepare for pregnancy and the relationship with the baby in the belly? Nature is already at work here. According to psychologists Bertrand Cramer and Thomas Brazelton, there are three stages in the preparation of a woman for motherhood in three consecutive trimesters:
- XNUMXst trimester – state of euphoria due to pregnancy, anxiety about new responsibilities, idealization of the child,
- II trimester – new energy, nesting, baby’s first movements – first experience of his presence,
- XNUMXrd trimester – noticing the psychological distinctiveness of a child, giving him / her features.
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