Perinatal Anxiety vs. Your Intuition

It is very common to feel anxious during pregnancy and postpartum.

There is so much change that happens in a short period of time.

There is so much out of your control, in terms of the health of the pregnancy and the health of the baby.

There is so much out of your control, in terms of the big feelings your baby may have, and how activating those big feelings may feel for you.

And you may be feeling like you are spiraling into an anxiety tornado.

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• Constant worry

• Feeling that something bad is going to happen

• Racing thoughts

• Disturbances of sleep and appetite

• Inability to sit still

• Physical symptoms like dizziness, hot flashes, and nausea

So how do we know if our worry is perinatal anxiety or our intuition telling us something is actually wrong?

That is a great question, and it really depends on you, your history, and what is currently going on in your life. 

When our bodies are in a hyperarousal state (i.e., anxiety), we are in our sympathetic nervous system (i.e., fight or flight). 

In this state, you may notice feeling hot in your body, panicky, shallow breathing, and/or your thinking feels fuzzy. 

The part of our brain that is able to know logic and reason is off, or at least having a difficult time working, and we are responding from the emotional and survival parts of our brain

The first thing to do is to bring your body back to a calmer state, so that the thinking part of your brain can turn back on, and you can have a better perspective of what you are worrying about.

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