There’s a prevailing myth that we’re supposed to ‘bloom’ when we’re pregnant. Ripe with the joys of the life growing inside us, we pregnant ladies waft through the world, trailing a warm glow of love as we go. Our skin shall be radiant, our hair shall gleam, and our bodies shall revel in their proven fecundity. Of course, we shall have the odd minor moment of discomfort as the due date approaches, and sometimes our hormones may get a little uppity, but in the main we shall be glorious beacons of maternal femininity.
As many of us know, the reality of pregnancy is often quite, quite different. How can pregnancy make you feel utterly horrible? Let us count the ways…
- Morning sickness. Ugh. Doubly ugh as it often occurs early in pregnancy, so you have to cope with it while working and trying to conduct your life as normal.
- Swollen ankles.
- Swollen everything else.
- Mood swings. One moment you’re sobbing with love at a puppy on the television, the next you’re threatening to eviscerate your partner because they breathed in an irritating manner.
- The sheer, sometimes agonizing impracticality that is a vertical biped hauling a small human around in its belly. Humans are very poorly designed indeed when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth.
- Braxton Hicks. A cruel, cruel trick.
- The perpetual worries about the birth, the baby, and everything in between and beyond.
- Backache. Often permanent.
- Sore breasts.
- Sore everything.
- Insomnia.
- Fatigue.
- And much, much too much more.
The reality is that, far from being the magical experience that we are often expected to have, pregnancy can be hellish. This is particularly true for those with mental health problems, especially if those problems are related to body image. The huge changes one’s body goes through at pregnancy can cause some very serious issues for these people, potentially making both mother and child very ill indeed. But even when we’re otherwise pretty healthy, pregnancy is frequently not the joy we’re supposed to believe that it is. So, if you’re pregnant, and feeling pretty rubbish, don’t worry. Don’t feel guilty, don’t feel like you’re in some way deficient, or unfeminine, or letting your child down by not enjoying your pregnancy. You’re not. What you’re experiencing is perfectly natural. What is unnatural is this bizarre insistence on pretending that pregnancy is all smiles and rainbows and that elusive ‘glow’. Don't fall for it, and don't get guilt about how you feel!
No comments:
Post a Comment