Can stress/anxiety/adrenaline harm the baby?

[PenguinTuxedo]

I probably sound really over dramatic, but I'm a worrier.
Had an incident in a car park yesterday, and this man was really aggressive and quite vile with me. I'm all worked up over it and hardly slept. I know I should just stop thinking about it but I just can't.

I'm now worried that all the stress, anxiety and adrenaline might harm the baby :( I have felt her move a bit since, so I'm probably worrying over nothing but I just don't know how to calm down :(

No.

Don't get more stressed by worrying about this.

But - use the time before the baby arrives to work on your anxiety and get some stress control strategies in place.

No it won't-in fact some studies suggest some stress is good for developing babies. You do need to learn to relax a bit though. Try the free download on www.meditainment.com

Pacific - I am trying to work on it. I was diagnosed with anxiety after my best friend died 6 months ago, so it's am ongoing battle. I see a counsellor, cos like you said, I need to get this under control before the baby comes! Have another 18 weeks to work on it :)
I will look into that Haggis, Thank you.

You could try practicing Mindfulness - there are lots of online resources and books/apps around to get you started.
It is very much something you have to practice, like you would a new language or an instrument and you'll get 'better' at 'staying in the moment' and not over thinking the 'what ifs' and 'I should'ves' quite quickly.

So sorry to hear about your friend - that is hard to deal with.
I hope things get better v soon.

Thanks Pacific :) I will look into mindfulness as well, I'm willing to try anything that might help. Thank you

Headspace is a good app you could try downloading for mindfulness practice, you get ten decent free sessions with it to see if you like it, but tbh you can keep using them over and over, I did for a long time.

I've been doing this since the start of my pregnancy to try and counteract my typically anxious nature, as I was worried about the same thing. It's worked really well for me.

If you want something more pregnancy specific, Maggie Howell (does the natal hypnotherapy stuff) has an mp3 download (or there's a CD) for a pregnancy relaxation exercise. Have been doing these too and they're really good.

But don't stress about being stressed! You'd have to be under huge amounts for it to be an issue. 18 weeks is heaps of time to work on it a bit.

No, stress and adrenaline won't harm your developing baby. I have a very stressfull job and had a few incidents that caused major adrenaline surges in my first and second trimester. Then my Dad became terminally unwell in my 3rd trimester. My DS, now 28 months, was absolutely fine. I used to talk to him (in my head if I was in company but out loud if I was alone) when I was stressed to try and explain what was happening. They say the baby can hear your voice in the womb and it also helped calm me down.

No.

I have never been pregnant when I didn't want to be, but I would imagine it is a stressful experience. If stress were likely to cause a miscarriage, there wouldn't be much need for abortion. Since a fair number of abortions do happen, stress must not be likely to cause a miscarriage.

I know it feels horrible when something like that happens, I had a couple of run ins with people whilsr pregnanr, but bear in mind that women have perfectly healthy babies in the middle of war zones, and other very stressful situations, so one argument in a car park is unlikely to affect your baby.

Take care.

I lost my father through suicide a year ago this Thursday, so I know exactly how you feel living with anxiety, it's awful and until you have suffered with it, it's hard to understand, perhaps see a counsellor and talk about the triggers for your anxiety and get some strategies in place for when bambino arrives :)

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I'm still a bit on edge about it all, but after a very active day from the baby I feel slightly better.

Morgan mummy - I'm really sorry to hear about your dad. I know it's not the same, but that's what my best friend died from and it's very hard to get my head around. Even now. I will be thinking of you on Thursday

I'm so sorry to hear that hun, they leave behind such terrible heartache and unanswered questions but I do try to comfort myself knowing that what my dad did was not 'him' it was an illness (depression) just like cancer it eats away at people and destroys lives, I like to see this pregnancy as a gift from my dad to help me carry on and love again as it is very hard not to be bitter toward life after a tragic event like suicide. Have faith and you will find a way to cope and try not to understand as unless you are suicidal yourself I don't think we can ever really understand xxxxx

And thankyou very much, my DS, DP and myself and baby bean are off to let off some lanterns on Thursday,