Being Pregnant In A Pandemic
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I had heard about anxiety in pregnancy but I don’t think I was quite prepared for what being pregnant would be like during a pandemic.
So how have the last 6-7 months been? For so many of us this has been an impossible year, with loss of loved ones, cancelled plans, financial hardships and just the uncertainty of it all. Throw in being pregnant to that mix and you’ve got a whole cocktail of hormones, anxiety and added worry.
However it does feel like a light at the end of a very dark tunnel, and I honestly do still feel very lucky and happy to be pregnant. I think my biggest fears lie in what happens next, with rules changing and a second wave of a lockdown the fear about the birth and Dev my husband not being able to be there for it all is difficult to take in. But if 2020 has taught me anything, it’s that we can’t plan for the future, we are being remind daily that we have to live in the present right now and enjoy the smaller moments of our days and weeks.
Pregnant in Lockdown
I found out I was pregnant in early June, which in certain situations made the first 3 months where you if you have chosen to not tell anyone a whole lot easier. As summer approached and we got to have more of a ‘normal’ day-to-day I felt lucky that the first 12 weeks where you are just physically so exhausted (there’s nothing like that feeling) had been spent mainly at home with lots of time to rest.
As I am self-employed and my business heavily relies on in-person events and being out and about and hosting large events. It came as a welcome relief to be able to take a lot of my work online and run Virtual Yoga Brunch Club’s and online classes. It meant I could still work and conserve a lot of the energy that goes into traveling and being face to face with people.
However that’s not to say it has been easy but I’ve been forced to pivot, loose out on large chunks of income and work, and make quick decisions. All whilst acting on my feet, which hopefully is good preparation for when the baby arrives and I have to navigate the juggle of working and being a mum.
This second lockdown has felt easier, and most of it for me has been spent teaching online yoga, cooking, taking a lot of regular walks and exercise which has been a saving grace.
Time to Plan & Prepare
With so much time spent at home, this has given us a lot of time to prepare and plan for the baby’s arrival. Dev has been fortunate to keep his job and work full time from home. With us both at home its meant we have had more time to tick of all long DIY list, and prepare the baby room and take time over what we need to buy rather than going into full last minute panic mode.
As a parent to be you will know how many options/products/really useful and really unnecessary items there are for your new born baby. It’s hard to work out where to start, we have taken a slower and steady approach starting with:
Preparing the Nursery:
Mural
We have a spare room so have been spending time creating a nurturing and cosy space that we will want to spent time in. We invited a friend Anna Rootes whose an artist to come and paint a lovely jungle mural on the wall to add some colour and warmth. Every time I walk in to the room it makes me smile
Furniture
We are trying to re-use and up-cycle what we have in the house, and have been repainting old furniture. We have a chest of drawers that we are going to make into a changing table and will be adding in a comfy chair for feeding and soft lighting and a cot soon
More developments to come on this soon.
A Different Kind of Pregnancy
I always loved the idea of having a bump and being pregnant, I never imagined that it quite unfold like this during a pandemic. I am sad that I haven’t been able to see more of my friends and family whilst pregnant as I know how much our lives our going to change once the little one arrives.
It feels daunting to know how we are going to get through those early months without the support of baby groups and new mum’s. We have signed up for an Online NCT course and a Hypnobirthing course, due to restrictions these all have to take place online. Which makes it harder to make friends, meet new people and make connections, which I know are so vital as you move into parenthood.
With rules continuing to change, Dev was allowed to attend the 12 week scan which I feel is so important, as a woman you constantly feel all the changes taking place in your body. For the partner these moments at scans, first kicks, first view of the baby makes its all the more real and wonderful for them. Unfortunately he wasn’t allowed to attend the 20 week scan. We did find out the sex of the baby and the hospital staff wrote it down on a piece of paper for us, which we opened and found out together which was lovely.
My biggest fears lie in the actual birth and the thought of Dev not being able to be there for all of it, the rules are still that birthing partners can only be present when you are in active labour and once the baby is born if you need to stay in the hospital your partner has to leave.
But again if 2020 is teaching me new things it’s that I have to let go of trying to control situations and outcomes and not fixate on things that are completely out of my hands. I appreciate the hospital and NHS are doing all that they can with the current situation and trying to manage the enormity of the pandemic and delivering babies.
RESOURCES
Coping Strategies and things that have been helping:
1. Morning meditation, 15 minutes sitting while the house and the start of the day is quiet.
2. Reading:
Parenting The Shit out of Life by Mother Pukka
Your pregnancy week by week by Dr Lesley Regan
How To Grow a Baby and Push It Out, by Clemmie Hooper
The Positive Birth Book, by Milli Hill
3. Yoga Nidra
I use the insight timer app which is free and try to fit in 20-30mins after lunch or in the late afternoon, I recommend the following nidras to get you started:
Yoga Nidra (recorded in Goa) - 19mins
Sleep Well 2- 33 mins
Melanie Cooper- 26 mins
4. Resistance Training and Staying Active
I stopped running early on in my pregnancy but have kept up walking, swimming and resistance training with Pip Barsanti which has all made a huge different to my mental health and keeping my energy and fitness levels up as my body changes.
5. Learning, reading and building knowledge about what happens next. I’ve signed up for a Hypno course with Emily Bray and we start out NCT course in December and I joined a weekly pregnany yoga course as a way to meet more women who are pregnant at the moment.
I know how much we are all craving, community, connection and a support network at the moment. It feels like this a more important thing than ever at the moment.
Which is one of the reasons why I decided to launch the Yoga Bump Club, it’s taken me getting pregnant to realise how much value and comfort this can offer so many mum’s and parents to be. The Yoga Brunch Club for me has always from the start been about building a community, so I am delighted start building that for all expectant parents as we need things to look forward to and to bring us together.
Find out about the next Yoga Bump Club running on Sunday 29th November here.