Reducing Anxiety in Early Pregnancy
With home pregnancy tests, many women now find out they are pregnant much sooner than ever before. This can be good because the mother can start preparing herself for a new baby; she can start eating healthy, taking her prenatal vitamin, making sure she is getting enough folic acid, and she can quit smoking or drinking or taking any medications that would not be acceptable in pregnancy. This can also have it’s downside however, as now women get to obsess and worry and be anxious about their pregnancy during the very early weeks when the likelihood of miscarriage is much higher. How can women reduce the stress and anxiety of early pregnancy?
First, take some time to plan when you will tell people and what you will tell them, and make sure that you and your partner are on the same page. You will need to think about when you will share the news of the pregnancy. Some women like to share the news right away, others like to wait until they are in the second trimester, or have heard the heartbeat, or have had an ultrasound. This is an individual choice and one you might want to give some thought to before deciding. You also may want to think about if you will tell people the exact due date of your pregnancy, and the exact week you are on. Now is the time to think about how you may feel in later pregnancy and if you really want the pressure of many excited friends and family members weighing on your mind - and on your phone, and your email, and your front door - when you are inevitably a few days (or more) past your due date. Some women choose to give a due month or a due time period instead of a due date. If you choose to go this route, you will also need to give out your month of pregnancy and not your week, otherwise people can easily calculate the week of your due date. You might also want to consider whether you will be sharing the names you are thinking of for your baby, and if you choose to find out, whether the baby is a boy or a girl. What you choose to share is up to you and there is no right or wrong choice. It is worth giving a little thought to though before you announce your pregnancy.
The next thing you may want to consider is when you will go to your first prenatal visit and what you will have done there. The latest trend in prenatal care seems to be getting women in as early as possible and giving them one or more ultrasounds in very early pregnancy to determine their dates. It is important to know your dates so that if you go into labor early you will know if the baby is premature and needs special treatment, or if you go past 42 weeks you may need to have special monitoring to assess whether the baby is still doing well enough to continue with your pregnancy. However, there are more ways to date a pregnancy than an ultrasound. If you know the first day of your last period, or if you know the date you ovulated or conceived, then these dates will be sufficient in determining gestational age. As your pregnancy progresses your care provider will also measure fundal height and this will confirm your dates. There is also generally a routine ultrasound offered around 20 weeks to check for birth defects. So, when you combine the first day of your last period or the date of conception along with your fundal height measurements along with the measurements of the 20 week scan if you choose to get this, your care provider should then have a pretty good idea of what the gestational age is. Therefore, you may choose to forgo any early dating ultrasound unless you have some medical indication for one.
It can be exciting to see your baby on ultrasound, but you may want to consider a few things before having very early ultrasounds done. Though I feel ultrasounds are relatively safe, some people worry about the number or duration of them. Having many ultrasounds in early pregnancy when the fetus is still developing isn’t proven to cause any harm, but some women still feel that they may not be entirely safe and choose to avoid them. Some women choose to get just one or two ultrasounds throughout their pregnancy. Other women only get an ultrasound if there is a medical indication to do so. The reason that I might recommend not getting early ultrasounds though is that it often can contribute to anxiety instead of alleviating it. Many women who have early ultrasounds find themselves being highly worried for weeks over findings that were out of the range of average, such as slower growth than was expected or not being able to find a fetus or heartbeat. In most of these situations, any issues work themselves out and later ultrasounds show all is well. Why worry yourself over a very early ultrasound when the discrepancy of how the fetus grows may vary widely at that stage? Of course, if you have any indication for an ultrasound such as cramping, bleeding, or a medical history that might require one, then this is a different situation.
Most women in early pregnancy have one major concern; miscarriage. Pregnancy loss can be a very sad event, and it is understandable why women fear this happening when the chances are much higher in the first trimester. There is no way to prevent miscarriage in early pregnancy, and this lack of control or ability to stop it can really produce a lot of anxiety in some women. It is important for women to aware though that no matter how many times they visit their providers in early pregnancy, or how many ultrasounds you get, there is still no way to prevent miscarriage. Women will need to decide for themselves what may reduce their anxiety or add to it in early pregnancy. Some women will want a lot of reassurance by a care provider, others will not even visit a care provider until the second trimester. Whatever you decide, you may want to factor in anxiety levels when you make your decisions about how you will handle early pregnancy.
