Really frightened of war

[elm26]

Please bare with me, I suffer anxiety and depression and I'm 23 weeks pregnant after lots and lots of miscarriages so I'm a bit fragile anyway but all of this about WHO publishing lists of medications for countries to stock pile in case of a nuclear attack and radiation is really getting to me.

Spoke to DH and he said "if it hits London, we won't know anything about it as we'll be wiped out within seconds so what's there to worry about? It won't happen anyway" which really doesn't help.

Please help me rationalise 😔

WHO are probably just doing their job as regards advice for the country equivalent of eg business continuity. Like how we plan for power cuts and get a torch and have a few tins in without really expecting to go for a huge amount of time without power and councils plan for if there was a big fire or flood and people had to sleep in a hall on a camp bed. Pregnancy is such an anxious, emotional, upsetting time as much as it's beautiful and exciting it's scary and hormonal and brings up all your feelings to the surface. I felt so vulnerable when I was pregnant and this sounds like an extension of that. Keep talking and being open about how you're feeling with your loved ones and midwife. You're not alone and everyone will support you if you share what you're finding hard.

Pregnancy makes you want to protect your baby from everything from coughs and sneezes to war.
As @Effortlesslyaverage Says WHO are doing their job. Are you old enough to remember the Millennium? Everything was going to crash, I had endless communications at work that we must have stocks of water, extra blankets, portable heaters, food stocks, torches. Some of them were quite hysterical sounding.
Nothing happened, absolutely nothing.
can you talk to your midwife about your worries?

Well - not sure if if this helps or not, but that WHO guidance has been around for years and years. Countries/locales have always had some kind of guidance, especially in areas where people live next to nuclear power stations. This hasn't just come out of the tensions over Ukraine - it's good practice for safety and living with nuclear fuel as an energy source.

Updates were done in March last year, and in 2007, but this particular resource (the WHO's one) was established and published in the late eighties - with the date I'm assuming it's because of Chernobyl. There were other accidents before but Chernobyl really got the public attention.

"The WHO’s Radiation Emergency Medical Preparedness and Assistance Network (REMPAN) was established in 1987 in order to fulfill WHO’s mandate under the two international conventions on Early Notification and Assistance in the case of a nuclear or radiological emergency (IAEA, 1986)."

So please don't worry about this.

Also - congratulations on your pregnancy!🌺

but all of this about WHO publishing lists of medications for countries to stock pile in case of a nuclear attack and radiation is really getting to me.

Where have you seen this or heard it recently ? The way you describe it, its as though there has been lots of media coverage, but I haven't heard anything.

I think the press is ramping it up. I read a headline saying now Putin was at war with Nato. That's absolute nonsense. I did read something this morning about Who and nuclear medications. Might have been the Daily Mail. I didn't read the article but I did see the headline.

Gently, turn off the news and step away from Google/social media discussing these things. It’s shocking what it does to one’s mental health. Your husband is right, but it won’t come to that. Protect yourself and your baby by stepping away from news - you will feel SO much better, and I say that as a previous suffered with health anxiety.

You need to speak to someone if your worries start consuming you or keeping you up at night.

I have anxiety and regularly can't sleep because I worry about things like this. When I first had DS I was convinced there would be a terrorist attack wherever I went so I basically locked us in the house for months.

Just don't let it spiral because it'll really ruin what's meant to be a very happy time

It's currently a lead item in the Mail who we all know love a good drama

It was the Daily Mail I just checked. WHO have updated their list. But they probably do that from time to time anyway. It is concerning. So no point in saying it isn't. I agree with the others. Tslk about your anxieties.

Tbh the stress you are sitting is likely to do more harm to your baby than the risk of war.

the newspapers need clicks to make money, so they make everything doom and gloom

honestly, get off social medias, turn off the news. Get a meditation app like headspace and learn to switch off. Stress is terrible for your body.

OP, congratulations on your pregnancy, I can imagine it's a hard time to be pregnant right now, there seems to be very little in the news that isn't doom and gloom!

However, remember, you are not on your own. Women were in the same boat with the Great War, the Depression, the Influenza Outbreak, the Cold War - and that's just off of the top of my head in the last century. You know that saying 'there's no good time to have a baby'? There really isn't. But they had grew their babies, had their babies, raised their babies, watched their babies have babies. . . and so shall you.