Stress and Pregnancy

Stress and Pregnancy can have serious consequences! Stress is a daily event for most of you. Life is hectic and you tend to over-schedule your life, and overestimate what you can really accomplish. You tell yourself you will stop, and make Lifestyle Changes, but you continue to live a stress filled life.

All of a sudden pregnancy strikes! Life has changed dramatically! You want to have a healthy pregnancy, and provide a peaceful environment for your baby. You want to have a full term pregnancy. Stress interferes with the peace you long for.

Potential Stress Related Problems

Research shows that repeated stressful events during pregnancy can be associated with:

• Increased risk of behavior problems in children, according to a study done by the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Perth Australia. If you experience more than three major stresses any time in your pregnancy, your risks of having a child with difficult behavior increases. A nurturing environment after birth has the potential to change this though!


• Increased risk of miscarriages was found by researchers in Denmark.


• Low birth rate babies, according to a study in the American Journal of Public health done in 2009.


• Increased risk for obesity later in life, especially if your baby is a girl. (Info. From Univ. of Minn. And Georgetown U.)

Stress and Pregnancy Tips

You all want an uneventful and healthy pregnancy.

Some tips to limit stress during pregnancy are:

• Limit involvement in activities. If you work, you might not be able to change that, but if you have events scheduled every evening, cut back. Don’t listen to that little voice inside of you that says "No one can do it like you can!" That voice is wrong! If you step aside, someone else will pick up the ball, run with it, and do a great job. Maybe someone that never had the chance before! Step aside!


• Develop a group of friends that has been pregnant before, and ask their advice, and coping strategies. Pick and choose the best advice from friends that know you well, and try new stress busters. Maybe you want to try deep breathing exercises, or a join a yoga class for pregnant women! Be willing to be proactive to eliminate stress.


• Schedule a weekly massage with a massage therapist trained and Certified in Prenatal Massage. They have special tables now with a hole for your growing tummy, that be be used safely in the earlier months. Nothing will feel so good to your aching back muscles than a great prenatal massage! Stress, what stress? You can even bring your massage therapist into the labor room with you these days. Massage Therapists can be certified as in Labor Massage Therapy, or you can hire a Massage Doula for labor room support! Not sure about you, but that might be more help than a nervous husband, who did not think he had to retake the pregnancy breathing class for baby number 2, and can’t remember a darn thing! True story! My niece Brie Storz, is a Certified Massage Therapist in Sacramento, California who specializes in Prenatal Massage, and Prenatal Massage in the Delivery Room. She has a great list of the Benefits of Prenatal Massage on her website. Check out the benefits, as well as Brie's Stress page, and find a Massage Therapist who lives in your city, who is Certified in Prenatal Massage, and get on a regular schedule to keep your pregnancy stress under control. Photo above used with permission from the Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals.(ABMP) You can look for a Massage Therapist on the ABMP website.


• The biggest way to combat stress is to give up control! You all want to control everything in your life. You may as well give up the control issues now, because that baby on the way is going to end all the notions you ever had of being in control anyway! In a wonderful and glorious way that is!

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Stress robs you of enjoying the little things in life! It keeps you busy and spinning in circles. Being pregnant is an amazing time that you want to enjoy and remember. Take the steps to eliminate stress and to enjoy a healthy pregnancy with no long term effects to your baby. You and your baby are both worth the extra effort to slow life down!