Identifying and Managing Anxiety During Pregnancy

Maintaining emotional and physical health in pregnancy helps both mom and baby. This typically entails attending medical visits, eating nutritious meals, and maintaining low stress. For many women, an additional concern is managing anxiety during pregnancy.

Anxiety is very common and treatable but can feel very discouraging when experienced in pregnancy. Learning to identify anxiety and manage symptoms can make a difference and help to feel better.

Why Is My Anxiety So Bad During Pregnancy?

The female body undergoes numerous physical, hormonal, and emotional changes to accommodate a growing baby. Every woman is unique and different in how they will respond to pregnancy. Whether planned or unplanned, there are various things that can increase the potential for pregnancy anxiety.

Dealing with Life Adjustments

An incredible amount of preparation, planning, and life adjustments need to be made. There are many changes and important decisions that come up and need your attention all at the same time.

It can feel overwhelming to have to have to consider things such as your home and finances in a different way. Will having a baby mean that you have to move? Do you have medical insurance and maternity leave benefits that can accommodate your growing family? 

Do you have childcare services in place or daycare options in the community? If you currently have children, how will they respond to having a new sibling?

Sometimes the answers to these questions bring into focus the reality that things need to change. And when things change, we need to adjust ourselves to make the best of it. While true, this is not always an easy process. 

Being pregnant often creates a sense of urgency for things to be handled quickly, adding increased pressure and stress. There is an understanding that adjustments needs to happen. But what happens if we don’t feel ready?

We don’t feel that we have it all together? Difficulty adapting to new situations or making life adjustments can lead to increased feelings of worry and anxiety. 

Navigating Change in Relationships

The dynamics of the relationship will invariably change as conversations will now include talk about the baby. Expanding the family has both pros and cons. Identifying and understanding that this is normal can ease the stress. 

Being able to talk to your significant other about your fears, concerns, and needs in the relationship can help. It is possible that you need your partner to show up for you in a different way now that you are pregnant.

Likewise, your relationship with friends may be different. This is true especially if you are the only mom among your group of friends. Your identity is changing as you lean in toward this new stage of motherhood. 

Managing anxiety during pregnancy might entail acknowledging that relationships naturally ebb and flow. However, keep in mind that changes don’t have to indicate that something is wrong or bad. It’s important to find ways to maintain open communication with people in your life that you care about most.

Continue to nurture healthy relationships and spend time with your friends throughout pregnancy. Doing so will ensure you maintain a much needed support network.

Fear of Pregnancy or Having a Baby

Sometimes anxiety in pregnancy stems from fear that something will go wrong during pregnancy or in the delivery room. For many women that have suffered one or more miscarriages, carrying a baby to full-term is imperative.

Fears can also grow if a previous pregnancy or delivery process was traumatic or particularly difficult. In this case, having another baby can stir up mixed emotions. Additionally, worrying can emerge if you are personally dealing with a health issue during pregnancy.

Or if there are concerns about the baby’s health and development that specifically needs your attention. Dealing with any of these challenges can be scary. 

Having trust in your obstetrician and your medial team can help ease the health anxiety. Make sure to ask questions as they arise during pregnancy to stay informed. 

Prior History of Anxiety

Having a prior history of anxiety can increase the potential that a person will have anxiety during pregnancy. While the potential to have anxiety is there, it does not always mean that symptoms will worsen.

For example, knowing that you have a prior history of anxiety can help you prepare to manage anxiety during pregnancy. You will already know how to identify symptoms. You may have already learned healthy coping strategies in the past that can prove useful now in pregnancy.

If you have prior experience with anxiety and are in the family planning stages of life, consider meeting with a mental health therapist. Having a connection with a therapist before you become pregnant and during pregnancy can help reduce stress and increase supports.

Does Pregnancy Anxiety Go Away On its Own?

For example, consider for a moment a person that is nervous to get their blood drawn. Feelings of nervousness, difficulty with relaxation, worrying about the discomfort or pain may occur prior to the appointment.

Once the experience is over, the person may no longer feel anxious. The anxiety doesn’t interrupt the rest of their day and it goes away quickly on its own. This differs from other types of anxiety in which worrying occurs on a more frequent or chronic basis.

For example, when a person worries about multiple and varied things everyday, the anxieties don’t go away on their own. This is because the mind is frequently preoccupied with many worries that are difficult to control.

It is hard to have enough mental bandwidth and space to feel relaxed and carry out daily responsibilities. This combination makes it less likely that anxiety will go away on its own. 

These are more likely indicators of a need to take healthy action steps toward addressing the anxiety symptoms. For example, meeting with a licensed mental health counselor specializing in anxiety treatment.

How to Go About Managing Anxiety During Pregnancy

Learn to Identify Common Anxiety Symptoms

It is helpful to stay tuned in with yourself and keep track of any changes with your thoughts, mood, and emotions. Identifying anxiety symptoms makes a difference in being able to control them. Some of the anxiety symptoms to look out for include:

• frequent worrying about everyday things
• difficulty controlling worrying
• difficulty with relaxation
• irritability or easily annoyed
• feelings of restlessness
• muscle tension
• sleep disturbance
• difficulty with concentration

If these symptoms are interfering with your daily functioning, you may be dealing with an anxiety disorder during pregnancy. Knowing what you are dealing with allows you to implement helpful tools, resources, and supports to begin feeling better again.

What Helps with Anxiety During Pregnancy?

Maintaining good care of yourself. This includes the mind, body, and spirit. Below are a few ideas to consider.

Manage Stress Levels

Consistent and persistent stress lowers the immune system and makes it harder to optimally tackle life’s issues. High stress is also correlated with increased anxiety symptoms. For these reason, learning to manage stress can be one of the tools to reduce overall anxiety.

One way to start is to identify your stressors. Are these stressors due to outside forces and things out of your control? Are they stressors due to problems that can be resolved?

Asking these questions are important because they will guide you in how you choose to respond to the stressor. For example, consider a situation in which the stress stems from a chaotic morning routine.

You may be able to implement problem solving or organizational skills to reduce the stress. Laying out your clothes or preparing your lunch the night before eases the stress of the morning shuffle to work.

Small changes to reduce stress is one way of managing anxiety during pregnancy. Stress management doesn’t have to be huge overhauls of your routines. It just means taking small steps toward lessening the stronghold of pressures in your life.

However, there are some stressors that are outside of our control and may require a different approach. These are the things that we can’t problem-solve or organize. In these situations, practicing patience and calm are the most appropriate options to reducing the stress.

A helpful plan may be to talk about the stress with a trusted person. You can also find ways to express your emotions creatively through journaling or artwork.

The trick is in finding relaxation strategies and other healthy ways to feel better. After some time actively practicing stress management tools, you may notice that your overall anxiety is decreased. 

Physical Movement and Exercise

Physical movement helps with managing anxiety during pregnancy. Research indicates that even small amounts of movement and exercise throughout the week can boost brain health and reduce stress. It also helps to improve mood and reduce anxiety symptoms. 

It is necessary and important to consult with your medical doctor and obstetrician (OB) prior to starting any exercise. If medically cleared, your doctor can also guide you toward the types of exercises that will be appropriate for you.

Reduce Negative Influences

Pregnancy is a time when you need the most supports. Take inventory of where your time and energy is going. Reduce putting your time and energy toward things that do not make you feel your best. This can be social media, news, friends, and even family that give unhealthy advice or put you down.

Anxiety disorders in pregnancy are stressful to manage when there is consistent exposure to negativity. Find ways to increase positive interactions and experiences during pregnancy. Spend more time with people and things that provide you with healthy and supportive energy. 

Let Go of the Need to Control

There is a lot of uncertainty that accompanies pregnancy. And it is natural to want to have all the answers and feel as prepared as possible. For some women, being prepared means that they are being a good mom. 

While preparation is encouraged and reduces stress, not everything can be prepared for. Some things are simply out of our control. Therefore, it is helpful to create space and room to deal with difficult situations and emotions when they arise.

One way to to do this is to recognize if you are tied to a specific outcome. Having a specific story in our mind of what we believe should happen leaves little room for anything else.

Letting go of having a specific outcome reduces disappointment, fear, confusion, and anger when things invariably don’t go as planned.

Additionally, letting go of control allows space for wonder and surprise. Things may even go better than you ever thought or could have imagined!

Being too rigid or set in our ways reduces our ability to healthily adapt to difficult situations. Instead, practicing and incorporating mental flexibility will benefit your efforts toward managing anxiety during pregnancy.

Engage in Pleasurable Leisure Activities

Engaging in activities that stimulate feelings of joy or calm are beneficial to overall wellbeing and mental health. Consider doing something positive that serves to distract the mind from any stressors or worries.

These leisure activities can be done on your own or as a social experience with other people. If you don’t currently have a hobby or leisure activity, consider starting something new in your life. 

Perhaps you try a different part of town, or visit a new store that you haven’t been to, etc. The main goal here is to create enjoyable moments to counteract the worrying. 

Doing things that make you feel calm, energized, and happy will replenish your spirit and improve mood. Leisure activities will help to regulate the nervous system, thus aiding in reducing  pregnancy anxiety.

Practice Positive Visualization Strategies

Similarly to negative thoughts, the mind can also conjure up negative images or pictures of things going awry. Momentarily imagine going into pre-term labor, experiencing pain, birthing plan going wrong, your spouse not making it to the hospital.

What images and emotions come up for you? Most women would feel a sense of worry or discomfort to imagine these things. And this would be appropriate. There is nothing wrong with wanting everything to go right and smoothly in pregnancy. 

But, as previously mentioned, we do not always have control of all scenarios. In order to manage anxiety during pregnancy, there must also be room to explore the positive things that can happen. Visualization is a tool used by many high performing athletes as a method to prepare for their big games. 

In this case, consider pregnancy and delivery as your big games. When the mind creates negative thoughts and pictures, redirect it to visualize a helpful image instead.

Imagine the helpful and pleasant things that can happen in the scenario. Who is there? How do you feel? What strategies and coping skills do you see yourself being able to access and implement?

In other words, allow yourself to imagine a scenario in which you successfully draw upon your strengths. A scenario in which you feel confident, secure, and capable. A scenario that involves helpful and caring people being in your corner and rooting for you.

Visualizing such positive things will counteract the negative images and worries and give you something to hope for instead.

Connect With Your Baby

Knowing what is happening inside of your body can often ease concerns about the physical changes that occur. Likewise, doing things that give you positive feelings about your baby can also distract from negative thoughts and worries.

For example, example, rubbing your baby bump, talking to, reading to, or singing to your baby builds a bond. Another idea is to keep a journal during pregnancy and write down the positive feelings you have for your baby. What are you looking forward to sharing with your baby once the baby arrives?

These moments of connection have the potential to increase healthy attachment and bonding. Additionally, these opportunities to bond with baby before birth can create a sense of lightheartedness and ease to your day.

Anxiety Medication for Pregnant Women

There may be times when it is appropriate and recommended for medication to be taken during pregnancy. The decision for medication management will depend on a few factors including the intensity, duration, and severity of anxiety symptoms.

In addition, the impact that anxiety symptoms have on a person’s daily functioning is of great importance. For example, having frequent episodes of high anxiety and panic attacks are uncomfortable, tiring, and rob the joys of pregnancy..

Consistent and chronically high anxiety is not healthy for a pregnant woman or the developing child. Paying attention to how anxiety is affecting you in your everyday life is one way to begin considering your options.

Mental health counseling and speaking to a licensed therapist can treat anxiety disorder in pregnancy. But, sometimes therapy alongside medication management can provide optimal results.

The best way to know if medication is a good option for you is to consult with your medical treatment team. Schedule an appointment with your primary care and obstetrician so that everyone is on the same page.

Your doctors can provide education, answer questions, and dispel misconceptions and superstitions around prescribing anxiety medication for pregnant women.

Many women are often surprised to learn that certain medications can be taken during pregnancy and the postpartum period. This is often a relief for women who have found their anxiety to be difficult to control and overwhelming. 

Will Taking Anxiety Pills During Pregnancy Harm My Baby?

A natural concern is about the possible influences and risks of anxiety pills during pregnancy. What can taking medication do to the baby? Can it harm development? Are there side effects?

Fortunately,  there is a great amount of research in the area of maternal mental health and treatment. The most common medications prescribed during pregnancy are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

These antidepressant medications have been found to be effective in treating anxiety and depression symptoms. Your doctor will help you understand how they work, what to expect, and anything to watch out for. 

There are many women who are already taking SSRIs when they become pregnant and stay on them throughout the pregnancy. There are also some women who will find a need to start them after they become pregnant.

And still, other women find a need to start medication during the postpartum stage due to postpartum anxiety or depression. The key point is that every individual woman, situation, and family is different. 

But, one thing  to also consider is what happens to the baby if mom is not feeling well emotionally and mentally? Taking control of anxiety disorder during pregnancy is paramount. Whether that involves talk therapy alone or therapy with medication is up to you and your treatment team.

Do What Works and Feels Best For You

Manning anxiety during pregnancy may include a multitude of approaches. Not everything is a one-size fits all. What works for one person is great for them but it does not guarantee that it will work for you. And that is OK!

Be mindful if you find yourself in the comparison trap and comparing yourself to other pregnant women. Everyone is different and needs different things in order to have a good and enjoyable pregnancy. You don’t have to copy what other pregnant moms are doing.

Instead, carve out some time to yourself for some honest reflection. Think about the things that you fundamentally need to stay healthy during pregnancy. Does this include more support? More sleep? Setting aside time for relaxation?

It can be helpful to grab a notebook as you reflect so that can jot down your thoughts and ideas. You can then create a plan on how to obtain or implement some of your ideas. You can work on them alone or involve your significant other, friends, family, and treatment team.

In the end, the best thing for a developing baby will be a healthy mommy. Only you know what this looks and feels like. Whatever you choose, know that pregnancy anxiety can get better. Stay hopeful and take care.

Therapy for Managing Anxiety During Pregnancy in Rockland County, New York

To learn more about managing anxiety during pregnancy or to meet with an anxiety therapist in Rockland County, New York, call or schedule an appointment online. Therapy and counseling services are available for New York residents.