50 Pregnant women who are having a worse day than you.
To people who don’t have any experience with pregnancy, it appears to be a wonderful journey. People who are pregnant spend months researching names for their baby, going to the doctor, and ultimately bringing a new person into the world. It sounds so amazing.
Pregnancy is much more than what we see in movies. It’s not as glamorous as they make it seem. Stylish maternity clothes are costly and hard to come by, and the ‘glow’ everyone talks about is more sweat than anything else.
We have made a list of real posts from mothers and their families about their experience of growing a baby in the womb.
1 Don’t give someone advice unless they ask for it.
2 Uh oh, something went wrong.
Vicki Broadbent, a writer, director, broadcaster, and founder of the parenting blog Honest Mum, told Bored Panda about the many changes that pregnant women go through. She said, “Your body and emotions both change a lot when you’re pregnant. Your body grows to make room for the baby, and your hormones cause chemical and emotional changes.” Vicki is also the bestselling author of Mumboss (UK) and The Working Mom (the US and Canada).
Vicki has two boys and a baby girl on the way. She believes pregnancy has given her a kind of motherly power. Her instincts are stronger, so she has less patience for problems. Vicki is looking after her health and her baby’s, and is focusing on what makes her happy. She recently read that all of a woman’s eggs are formed in her grandmother’s womb, and that when her mother was pregnant with her, she was there in her grandmother’s womb as an egg. Vicki feels like she has a lot of strength from the women in her family, which helps her on a deeper level.
True, female babies are born with 1-2 million egg cells, which is all they’ll ever have. During their lifetime, no new egg cells are formed. When a girl reaches puberty, she will have between 300,000 and 400,000 eggs left.
3 My husband made me a gift to use when people touch my belly without asking.
4 Having a whole chicken feeling
Pregnancy can be difficult right from the start, with things like nausea and fatigue in the first trimester. Even indigestion and insomnia in the second trimester can be hard to handle. But Vicki Broadbent, who has had four pregnancies and is now expecting her third baby (sadly losing a baby last year), is trying to appreciate the magic of pregnancy as much as she can.
Vicki still faces challenges, even though she has made positive changes. She feels pressure from society and the media to not look ‘too big’, and this affects her. She is trying to be kind to herself and is making healthy food choices and exercising safely. She is also doing daily meditation so she can be more responsive and less reactive, since hormones can be unpredictable.
Tommy’s, the UK’s biggest charity researching what causes and stops pregnancy troubles like miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, and neonatal death, knows it’s normal to feel tense when you’re pregnant. Dealing with your signs and adapting to your new way of life, together with the daily grind, can seem intimidating. To help you relax, Tommy’s suggests these tips.
5 I sent a text to my wife who is 36 weeks pregnant to ask how she was feeling and this was the photo I got back.
6 Today, my wife who is pregnant had to wear a superhero costume for work.
Vicki likes to meditate and let herself experience all her feelings, even when it means crying.
She said that it is important to be honest about how she is feeling. After she had a difficult first birth, she kept a lot of trauma to herself. She learned that it was not good for her mental health not to express her pain. Now, she talks a lot about her emotions with the people she loves.
The mom pays attention to her body. “When I need rest, I rest, and any guilt I felt about trying to be superhuman in past pregnancies is gone this time.”
Vicki shares her stories on her blog Honest Mum, as well as on Facebook and Instagram. She has a new post coming out today, so make sure to take a look. She speaks with great clarity and honesty.
