Motherhood is a blessing they say and there can be no bigger truth than that. Right from finding out that there is a pea-sized human inside of you, to the whole feeling of becoming a mother taking time to sink in, every phase of motherhood is a surprise and an absolute joy. No matter how many children you have, every pregnancy and every child will evoke new emotions in you and you cannot predict how every childbirth will pan out.
Pregnancy and becoming a mother are a unique orchestration of emotions -- some expected and some unexpected; some blissful and some scary; some that you are prepared for and some that catch you by surprise. Yet, no mother can ever put a finger on any emotion that can overpower the sheer joy of holding their babies close to their chest, gazing at them in wonder and awe.
Such is the emotional wiring of a woman. When you first discover that you are pregnant, the whole happiness associated with the question of ‘is this true?’ can often last for quite a long time. The acceptance of the fact that in nine months, you’ll have a baby of your own can take days or even weeks to sink in. When you hear the heartbeat of your baby from inside of you, through the machines that you are hooked up on is actually when it strikes you - your heart beats twice - one from inside your chest and one from inside your womb. The power of that maternal instinct overrides everything by leaps and bounds.
You are now a mother even though your baby is cuddled inside your womb and not in your arms. You will walk through a cement wall if you have to, for the sake of your baby. Pregnancy and the host of hormonal changes can trigger several emotions in you, ranging from happiness and excitement to extreme protectiveness towards your baby. All of your decisions revolve around the well-being of your baby and you try to do everything right to ensure that you bring your baby to this world in the best of health.
But, is pregnancy only about positive emotions? No, not really. You’ll often find yourself unable to control yourself, bursting into tears at even the most ridiculous things. From a random movie scene to craving for food that’s not readily available, many things make you cry. But, it doesn’t stop at the hormone-triggered emotions. Deep inside of you, there is an anxiety that makes you question your preparedness for birth.
Even though many of you might not ask yourselves this question in the euphoric phase of pregnancy, yet, as you inch closer towards your D-Day, this question might start popping up inside your head more often than you would like. This question could be related to taking care of the baby after he or she makes a grand arrival into the world, you might, predominantly, refer to the process of childbirth.
One reason why you might feel that you are not yet ready to pull off the most momentous feat of your life -- childbirth -- is for the fear of labour that is occupying your mind. While many women have the fear of labour, it’s actually the pain that most women are scared of. Let’s be honest - labour is absolutely no mean task and for women who have a lower threshold for pain, labour can seem to be a nightmare.
With the availability of information on the click of a button or the swipe of a finger, knowledge of matters related to medicine seems to be readily available. It might not always be a great thing, as many forums make birthing stories available. While some of these stories inspire mothers-to-be, several of these stories also relate the ‘horrors’ of birth and can easily add to the existing fears in your mind, if you are already anxious about labour. The fear fuelled by the ‘real’ stories of birth can compound your fear and make you very vulnerable, especially towards the end of your pregnancy.
As your day of delivery approaches, the fear of labor and pain could become a mental block and prevent you from thinking clearly and enjoying the last phase of pregnancy. The fear of pain can cause more anxiety than the actual pain itself. This is when, if you are going through something similar, you should broach the topic with your Ob/Gyn and ensure that you lay out everything in front of him or her to avoid any last-minute emotional complication.
we take great care to ensure that we listen to our patients and give them the beautiful experience of motherhood that they had always dreamt of. In the next blog, you will read about a mother, whose fear of labor pain made her swing towards a decision that would not have been very logical and what triggered it.
