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[00:00:00] Divya Kapoor: [00:00:00] Hey, good morning. I was to record record last night, but I dozed off waiting for DV to go to sleep. And I slept before her welcome to our bite-sized pregnancy series. The aim of which is to provide knowledge. So as to equip you to make informed decisions throughout pregnancy childbirth and postpartum.
[00:00:22] So here we are today, this morning, fresh and talking to you about pregnancy and stress. If I go back to my own pregnancy days some three years ago, I remember I used to get easily overwhelmed by watching the fantastic climax of a movie. The maturated when at the end of the movie, or I would see a delivery scene in a movie or a mother and a baby, and I would start weeping and then look around if nobody was seeing.
[00:00:50] And I would try and control myself throughout that phase or get up and go away and do not watch that scene. So I avoided watching scenes [00:01:00] that triggered my emotions. I went back to animated cartoons. I saw the entire season of we bear beers, went back to balloon the tails. I also read a lot of children's story books to keep me busy and who've done weekends so that my, you know, the triggers, however I could avoid the triggers.
[00:01:21] So yeah, that's what I did. And we all get a little overwhelmed and shares in pregnancy. I'm about looking at the hanky up pregnancy may stress monthly G, but nobody tells us how much stress is. Okay. How much is not. And sometimes we worry too much about baking too much stress. Right? So today we are going to discuss these three things.
[00:01:45] How much stress is normal when to raise an alarm, how to manage stress, moons, or anxiety in pregnancy? Uh, let me give you an example, getting a little nervous before an exam or a competition. [00:02:00] Used to be considered nice, used to be considered normal and part of the process. That's what we're going to talk first.
[00:02:09] What's normal. What's part of the process. If you had a bad dream about you and your baby, once in a while, that's okay. If you had a good dream about you and your baby. Yeah. That's okay. If you get watered about the health of your baby. Once in a while, and that's not true, you know, if you have mood swings, if you do not like a particular person, a particular thing, you do not like to eat something.
[00:02:38] You feel cranky time. And again, all the genders that our bodies are going through, they make us feel like that. A little bit of that from time to time, that can be managed is okay. If I would code, um, Benny Simkin from a book, she said being anxious and [00:03:00] taking that little stress. If I call it stress at all is beneficial for you in pregnancy.
[00:03:08] It cautions you, it keeps you on track. It helps you monitor situations and keeps you alert. So those are the benefits of being a little anxious from time to time. So if you are anxious about your discomfort, you're going to work on that. You're going to manage that if you are adverted about it. Whether you eating right or not, you're going to work on that.
[00:03:32] You're going to ensure a good, healthy diet. You may put an extra effort in maintaining a good exercise and optimum dressed routine. So that way is a little worrying about these little things from time to time and being happy generally. Otherwise is good. It's okay. It keeps you on toes. It keeps you connected to your body.
[00:03:55] It keeps you in an alarmed state so that you see any [00:04:00] symptoms, any signals that your body gives you from time to. If I put it like that, it puts you on a path of self check, which is good. Next we're going to talk about when should you actually get worded? We will talk in the subsequent section about how to manage stress in pregnancy.
[00:04:19] If all those measures of managing your stress do not help. Then you should raise an alarm, seek help, go and see your doctor or your counselor. So what amount of stress is not good for you? Constant stress. If you're constantly worried, if there's a lack of. Due to stress that is not being managed by comfort measures that you take.
[00:04:46] If you feel low, almost always. And you feel unproductive. If there are severe headaches that you're not able to manage. If you have a history of anxiety, I used to feel overwhelmed [00:05:00] earlier, too. And those emotions going height in pregnancy, I knew that I was able to manage that. Now we may have a history of anxiety and stress.
[00:05:10] We figured out that we're not able to manage it. Now it's a good time to seek help from a counselor or share that information with your doctor. It's very important to share what you feel about yourself. If you feel worried about anything, one thing that does doesn't go away, share it with your family, with your husband and with your doctors on your regular visits, that will help keep things.
[00:05:38] Also, if you have a specific situational stress, there's a loss of a loved one that is an abusive household, a stressful home environment due to the current situation that you're in. If that keeps you watered a lot. Mentioned that to your doctor or your counselor. So in short, [00:06:00] if something is constant, it's not going away, no matter how many comfort measures you take, no matter how many stress management techniques you use, it's a good time to share it with your family, your husband, and doctor, your doctor, or counselor, and seek help as to how it should be managed.
[00:06:17] Now, how do you manage stress? What are the stress management techniques? Nothing out of the blue, nothing magical. These are the various techniques that you already know. I'm just going to lay them down for you as a reminder and help you figure out which one is the best for you. The meter factor that helps you in stress management is finding your trigger.
[00:06:40] So there are behaviors that have triggers and eliminating those triggers is the best way to manage your stress along with other techniques. Remember the first step to managing your stress during pregnancy or at any point in time is to find out your triggers. For example, my triggers were [00:07:00] certain movies or certain songs where certain conversations with family and friends that involved an unlikely, a bad situation with a pregnant woman.
[00:07:10] So I would avoid all of them. Along with that for me, uh, the trigger were also certain people. I was a little more than normally irritated by them. And I realized that that was happening during pregnancy. And it was because of, you know, my mood swings. And so I made it a point to avoid. Those people as much as possible working on your triggers is the best thing to manage your stress.
[00:07:35] Other than that, what you can do exercise. If you you're advised by your doctor to exercise, if there's no issue, go ahead. Do it create an optimum balance. It releases happy hormones that are called endorphins and the magically build them. I'm done discomfort management pregnancy comes with a lot of discomfort, starts with nausea, [00:08:00] constipation, heartburn, headaches, shifting body, weight, body postures.
[00:08:05] It's significant to know what's causing your discomfort and try and work on that. A lot of things can be managed. As long as you're able to do that, you will still be in a good mood mostly because, um, these discomforts, they do affect us. They affect our moods. If you have, if you're not able to sleep because of the increase in belly, it's going to affect your mood throughout the day.
[00:08:29] If there is a lot of nausea, you're going to feel bad about your pregnancy. That's very normal. So it's important to work on discomfort, manage. And bring down the discomfort as much as possible. If you can, in your capacity, finding time to do what you like is something that I will stress upon a lot because postpartum, a lot of your time is taken by the baby.
[00:08:54] That is where. You would want to have that me-time diamond again. So I would [00:09:00] suggest finding time to do what you like it. Reading, painting, cooking, watching, television, getting dressed up. If that lifts your mood up, do that create a relaxed environment around you that could read your space. Meditate have gum music around you.
[00:09:21] Created a lax, them lightning, maybe, um, a little bit of an aroma therapy. There's a little bit of candles. Just lift your mood up to make you feel better about yourself.
[00:09:39] You can meditate as well, including meditation in your life is also a great way in the morning or in the evening. To manage stress and moods. If it is not something that gets you interested, I would suggest join some groups, join some groups which offer meditation, where there is guided meditation. You do [00:10:00] not have to put in the effort specifically.
[00:10:03] And that helps you say that's true. One other thing that we really stress upon less is eating right. It's also about of discomfort management because it reduces heart. Itching constipation. Other than that, eating what you eating impacts our mood. So eating light, less oily food, good or made food, creating a good balance of different kinds of foods and fruits throughout the day.
[00:10:34] Maintaining a good amount of fluid intake is going to make you feel good. Most of the time, it's a part of a stress management technique. Breathing exercises. I did talk about meditation. If meditation does not appeal to you, try breathing exercises, then all only important throughout pregnancy, they help you prepare for labor.
[00:11:00] [00:10:59] Bring you in tune with your body. It calms you down, relaxes the body. It has great benefits. Your body produces extra 50% of oxygen during pregnancy. That's the requirement. That's why we all feel breathless a little breathless during pregnancy. So breathing exercises can help calm the entire body. And that's a must during pregnancy and about stress management.
[00:11:28] So those were the techniques that you can use for stress management. Very common way. Everyday technique, maintaining an optimum balance between sleep and exercise and work is a great way to manage your stress on a day-to-day basis. But if none of these things work for you, you still have constant anxiety and stress.
[00:11:51] You should seek help from a counselor or a doctor. Martin that you should share it with your family, your husband, [00:12:00] or your partner, at least you can do is defeat in control and not worry a lot about being worried. And first of all, figure out your triggers, manage them. Work on stress management techniques on a day to day basis.
[00:12:16] Remember our bodies, listen to us. Every effort you put in is being heard. You are in tune with your body. Right now, leaving with this info and a note that you are doing amazing. You are building a new human being an entire life. It happens over a period of nine months. That's a lot of time you've endured this all this long.
[00:12:45] You're going to do it. Pretty well now, too, on that note, if you liked listening to us, please follow, leave a review. If you have an option that a friend know who may benefit out of this series, let us know if you wish we come up with a [00:13:00] specific topic. Write to us, tell us how you feel. We shall elevate your response is still there.
[00:13:06] Keep listening. And remember, you got the power