Conscious Pregnancy? I’m sure you’re wondering how in the world can someone be pregnant and not conscious during it, right? Well, it’s easier than you would think, especially in our busy, industrial lives, where taking a breath- or taking a break -is a big undertaking. Let’s talk about how stress in pregnancy affects baby?
During pregnancy, we learn, read, and hear a lot about how important diet and exercise is for our body and our baby. This is absolutely true! It’s important to eat nourishing, healthy food and limit unhealthy foods, because baby is tasting them too. It is also important to make sure you move daily, which helps you and baby to have better health outcomes. Walking (a lot), practicing yoga, dancing, swimming are all great; just make sure you move everyday because movement also helps with stress. Find something that you enjoy doing so it sticks!
Protecting your body during pregnancy is crucial and so is protecting your mind and your heart. While ancient cultures have known this for thousands of years, and, so have put into practice a number of traditions that nourish the mama-to be, western scientific research is still catching up to that ancient wisdom.
Stress in Pregnancy Affects Baby
Recent studies have found that toddler tantrums are connected to stress during pregnancy. So, the stress that you feel when you’re pregnant stays in the body, affects baby, and later manifests during infancy or when your child is a toddler. Check out my article on how stress in my first pregnancy led to my daughter’s tantrums and what actually helped.
When my sister was pregnant, my mother asked me and my other sister not to bring up any stressful topics. I didn’t understand it and thought it was silly for her to think that my sister would be so sensitive. I was mistaken.
You see, when a woman is pregnant, baby shares the experience of everything that she sees, hears, and consumes. They are, in fact, sharing the same space and blood, right?
Epigenetics?
Stem cell biologist, Bruce Lipton, talks about the field of epigenetics, and how our thoughts create our reality. Check out this Harvard study on how epigenetics affect the developing child.
When a pregnant woman is stressed, the very taste of the amniotic fluid changes for baby. There is an evolutionary reason for this. Mom is preparing baby for the world he or she will be born into. If mom lives in extreme poverty or violence, baby needs to be prepared for that environment to survive. Unfortunately, modern day, industrial stress presents itself in the same way. Fear is created and danger is reality. The body doesn’t differentiate between industrial stress and the stress of survival.
Furthermore, the genetic memories of our ancestors can be passed down for 14 generations. So, when we do not clear out the negative energy, we are destined to pass it to our offspring. “If we do not heal the wounds caused by our parents, our children will carry those scars.”
stress from work, commuting, family obligations, relationships, health concerns, etc. fill our lives with stress. Some of these may be out of our hands. How we react to those stressors is in our control. Meditation, therapy, affirmations, deep breathing, reiki, herbs can all help with this. If you have a stressful day, engage in something that you find relaxing and talk to baby about what happened, what you’re doing to feel better, and assure him or her that everything is okay.
Humans are not only physical beings but also emotional, spiritual, and energetic and we have to take that into account when creating a new human with our existing body. I did not know about this when I was pregnant with my first daughter. I paid for not managing my stress during pregnancy years later when her toddler tantrums were out of control. With my second child, though this was during Covid-19, I was under an incredible amount of stress but tried to manage my reactions or at least talk her through it. The age of two has been a breeze in comparison.
What to Do
So, in addition to eating healthy, drinking lots of water, and moving every day, read, watch, listen to positive, uplifting things. You don’t want to cause stress to your baby unnecessarily but, if you do get stressed or anxious, turn to positive practices and talk baby through it. If you’re a news junkie, turn it off for the duration of your pregnancy, if possible.
For symptoms, look into holistic practice like acupuncture, chiropractic, massage, reiki, essential oils that can help with a variety of common pregnancy symptoms, reduce need for unnecessary medications, and improve birth outcomes. A holistic and conscious pregnancy is about being intentional about how you experience your daily life and how that will impact your unborn baby, thus contributing to the consciousness of the planet.
All that being said, I fully understand this is a lot of pressure to put on mama and the societal structure should support mama during and after pregnancy as the kids of humans she is raising also supports society. However, that is unfortunately not yet available to mamas in America. So, it is up to us to demand and nurture a peaceful pregnancy.
Check out this interesting article on infant mental health on Mother.ly.
Update: I’m seeing so much more research on how stress during pregnancy is affecting baby’s gut microbiome, a girl’s puberty, and more!
A mother’s stress shapes her firstborn daughter’s development (msn.com)
A mother’s stress may change the makeup of her child’s microbiome (msn.com)
