Reducing Stress for Your Baby
Self-care Strategies
For many modern women, it makes logical sense to be aware of stressors in pregnancy—long commutes, financial changes, tight deadlines, interpersonal anxiety, and concerns about giving birth are all valid stressors. Personal choices about birth preferences, breastfeeding, and child rearing many times make pregnant women sounding boards for other people’s ideas and issues. In fact, in this culture of information overload, one of the most profound choices a pregnant woman can make is to listen to her own inner wisdom for inspiration, not information.
It is imperative that pregnancy gives a woman the path to become more internally focused for strategies to relieve stress. Making a commitment to awaken one’s own wise woman strategies in our increasingly fast paced world through sound, song, and stories can ease anxiety.
Here are some tools for expectant moms to speak with their prenatal medical care provider about the suggested protocols throughout their pregnancy.
Drink Tea
Drink 4 to 6 mugs of ‘pregnancy tea’ available commercially prepackaged or make your own tea of red raspberry leaf and nettle leaf teas. Both of these teas are nourishing for mom, baby, and the placenta. Just one cup a day is nice, but to get the real benefits, four to six mugs is ideal. This is a wonderful place to engage expectant dads and partners to brew the tea in large pots and keep in the fridge. The partner is supporting mom and baby in a wonderful way.
Listen to a pregnancy relaxation CD at least three times a night
It does not matter if you fall asleep while listening; your subconscious body receives the relaxation messages and will assist the pregnant mom in getting into deeper levels of sleep. Most pregnant women have to get up in the night to use the bathroom—that is the time to replay the relaxation CD! Available through local libraries, there are many pregnancy relaxation tapes and CDs available.
Take as many prenatal yoga classes as you can
Prenatal yoga done consistently assists with improving respiration, reduces muscle fatigue, and is an important tool to connect with the growing baby. Many local YMCAs, community centers, and yoga studios offer prenatal classes. No prior yoga experience is needed and women are encouraged to attend at any point in their pregnancy.
Use a hot water bottle or hot pack of flaxseeds microwaved on your lower back and shoulders four times day
Do not wait until you feel muscular aches, do this proactively as a daily check in to support your body! The warmth of the hot water bottle or hot packs is relieving and the gentle weight of the hot water bottle calms the central nervous system. Similar to why sand bags are used in yoga classes, warm packs can also be put on the forehead as a woman is getting to sleep.
Easy listening
Make a self-care practice to consciously turn off the external media of television and radio during your commute and replace it with sounds of nature, whale songs, lullabies, or other primordial sounds that awaken and enhance one’s auditory system.
Rub four to six drops of an essential oil, like lavender or neroli, on your temples, ears, heart and belly four times a day
Endorsed by practioners like Deepak Chopra in his book Magical Beginnings, the use of essential oils, like lavender promote gentle, therapeutic touch, create a loving ritual of self care, and infuse the skin (the largest organ) with healing properties from the oils. Again, the key is to do this practice consistently to get the greatest impact for mom and baby.
Eat “Green”
Go green at every meal and snack—Kale, cucumbers, spinach, and fresh parsley all enhance digestion and pack a powerful combination of nutrition when combined with protein like raw almonds or cashews.
Maternal anxiety during pregnancy is an emerging area of research, which researches effects of maternal mood on fetal brain development, preterm labor and other maternal-child health issues. All pregnant women are encouraged to have an open dialogue with their care providers regarding maternal mental health, self-care practices to promote stress reduction, and other strategies for healthy pregnancy protocols.