The Emotional Side of Pregnancy

Many women notice, from the very start of pregnancy, that they're subject to frequent mood swings and say they find it hard to control their own reactions. In some cases they find themselves pushing away, as if they had become insensitive, certain events that just a few weeks earlier would have moved them emotionally. Even while recognizing how absurd this is, something drives them to set these events aside, as if to keep outside happenings from souring such a beautiful, intimate time as their pregnancy. In other cases they admit to giving excessive weight to situations, even trivial ones, that stir up strong emotion inside them, to the point of being unable to hold back tears, even if they later feel embarrassed and think it's ridiculous.

Lara tells her story:

«When my boss told me that after my maternity leave my duties would change and I'd lose the part of my job I like most, I realized I hadn't felt any particular emotion, as if it concerned someone else entirely. Rationally, I understand it won't be easy to invest myself with the same interest in something different, but emotionally I feel nothing, as if it didn't concern me at all. Last night, though, watching a film on television, I was moved to tears by the story of a dog who, after his owner died, let himself die too, even though someone was taking care of him. I cried as if I myself had been left alone and helpless, unable to explain to myself what was happening to me.»

Not all pregnant women experience the same degree of emotional involvement with their pregnancy.

For some, whatever has no bearing on their condition is experienced with a certain detachment, because it seems of secondary importance, to the point of becoming uninteresting and tiring, too remote from them to deserve real attention. This shift that pregnancy has brought into their lives (especially in their perception of reality), which helps them anticipate the changes to daily life that the baby's birth will bring, is not without its risks, however. Excessive disengagement from what surrounds them could in fact widen the inevitable gap between the real baby and the fantasies and illusions they have lived with for nine months.

Other women, on the other hand, keep living right up until the birth as if the pregnancy had changed nothing in their life, their activities, or above all their thoughts. The risk they run, not having found the time or the way to create a mental space for the unborn child, is that of being overwhelmed, once the baby is born, by a sudden change in life and habits that they had never paused to imagine.

Often the psycho-biological process the expectant mother is going through also affects her perceptions and explains why her attention is «magnetically drawn» to everything connected with her condition: baby shops, parenting magazines, new mothers or pregnant women she meets on the street.

Here's how Lara experiences this: