Pregnancy can also be mentally exhausting. There’s this idea that you should be filled with joy at every moment. The glow should start deep in your womb and radiate out of your body, casting a halo of light and love around you, because you are carrying a miracle inside. It’s what you were made to do and you’re so #grateful to be able to do it #glowing.
Except when it isn’t all bluebirds and sunbeams. Pregnancy can be nightmares and panic attacks. For the first time in your life, you’re painfully aware that your future is entirely out of your control.
You don’t know if your baby will be healthy. You don’t know if the birth will go smoothly. And what if you hate motherhood? What if you resent this tiny alien creature for changing everything? What if it all goes wrong?
You’re not crazy for thinking these things. They’re all possible. You’re not being melodramatic or silly; you’re being realistic. You’re on a path you can’t get off, and that can be an overwhelming thought for anyone to wrap their mind around.
I can’t tell you not to be scared. I can’t tell you everything will be okay. I can’t even tell you that the fears go away when the baby arrives.
I can tell you that we all worry. We all get ourselves worked up now and then. This is the beginning of many, many years of scary thoughts and consuming fear. This is motherhood. You’re one of us now.
YOU WILL SURVIVE.