Pregnancy: why do we have mood swings when we are pregnant?
Rest assured: it's normal!
Even if your pregnancy has been long-awaited or long-desired, it is quite normal that you feel great anxiety at the prospect of such a big upheaval in your life. An ambivalence very well explained by The Great Book of my Pregnancy (Editions Eyrolles): "Changes of mood are common. Anxiety, emotivity, irritability translate the ambivalence of the future mum - especially during a first pregnancy -, shared between the joy of waiting for a baby, the fear that it presents an anomaly and the interrogation on its own bodily transformations ". So you're not the only one to smile and laugh at tears thinking about your future Disneyland trips and crying for fear that your baby no one is born disabled or malformed the next moment.
A hormonal and emotional upheaval
Like the first period or the menopause, the pregnancy is also a huge hormonal upheaval in a woman's life. But the emotional instability that often characterizes pregnancy (and a fortiori the first) is mainly due to the lot of questions and questions that beset the future mum. In the reference book I am waiting for a Child (Éditions Horay), Laurence Pernoud compares "the first times of the pregnancy (...) in the period of adolescence, this passage between childhood and adulthood ", not only because of the" before "and the" after "which precedes and succeeds this state but also "change of identity, accompanied by bodily, hormonal, psychic transformations" and the "malaise that can result". And to emphasize that "mothers feel vulnerable, without really knowing why".
Fear of the unknown and back to the past
As in many situations, it is the fear of the unknown, the uncertainty and the mystery surrounding the birth that will leave the future mum poor: the fear of change brought about by the arrival of a baby (family, professional or financial organization), the anxiety of having a child Abnormal or obsession with childbirth are all factors that explain why some women pregnant become irritable, anxious or even very emotional. In order to free you from these anxieties, do not hesitate to talk about it with your spouse, your mother, friends or sisters already momsor even your doctor or midwife. All kinds of emotions can also reappear from the past, thus forcing a difficult or painful questioning: am I really ready to be a mother? Will I be up to it? What if I became like my own mother? This "maturative crisis" is entirely healthy as long as it does not cause suffering. But if the pregnancy reactive past pain difficult to manage (rape, violence, abandonment, mourning ...) and which could have repercussions on the link with thechild to be born, a specialized consultation is necessary (psychologist or psychiatrist of maternity).
Tips for future dads
If you will have to arm yourself with infinite patience for the next 9 months (she: "why did you do that?"), He: "but it was you who asked me to do it!", She: " yes but that was just now, no more, bouuuuuh! "), do not hesitate to share your fears and doubts with your partner. Even if you can never feel the physical upheavals she's experiencing, explain that she can count on you, that you'll be there for her throughout pregnancy and at the moment of the arrival of baby and that you like it whatever its silhouette. Take action at Lotus, get all your empathy and understanding, and ... hold on!
