Anxiety or instincts?

[Afterconkerseason]

Hi all,

I am 37 weeks and have struggled all the way through this pregnancy with anxiety. The babies movements seem to be fine but I have really struggled to identify a pattern and am getting increasingly tearful wondering if I should just go in for monitoring.

I’ve had a lot of muscular abdominal pain, I have an umbilical hernia and the pain makes me anxious that maybe it’s masking other pain relating to the placenta or something.

The baby hasn’t moved for the last 30mins or so and I’m upset again waiting for her to move. Is this my instincts telling me something is wrong or just my anxiety? I just can’t tell and feeling so worried

It's anxiety. Babies spend the majority of their time in the womb sleeping, especially during the day when they are lulled by your movement, and half an hour of quietness would be nothing unusual generally. Even the most active babies won't move for a few hours at a time often.

That said, if you're really worried you can always call for advice.

Thanks Queen! She’s been moving again so I know it’s jusg anxiety really but finding the whole thing very nerve wracking!

Definitely anxiety. Do you have methods for getting baby to move if you feel anxious? Different things work for different babies, I have found. But with this one if I drink a hot chocolate and then a glass of iced water she will move around. Or if I lie on my left hand side and put a hot water bottle (not too hot!) on my bump for a minute.

But as pp said, your baby does need to sleep, so maybe don't check every half hour!

You have my total sympathy for the anxiety - I am suffering too as I have total placenta praevia and think that every twinge is something going wrong!

I know how you feel, I keep getting in a panic that I've not felt him move. Everyone seems to be able to tell a pattern really easily and I have really struggled with that. However I think a big part of that is that I'm an ocer-worrier.

I will say though, that it may be a good idea to go and get checked out just to put your mind at rest. I went in at about 30 weeks to be monitered just because I'd spent a few days making myself panic. As soon as I was hooked up to the machine he started kicking away like anything. I was so glad I went though. It only took about an hour but really worked to reassure me then and in the future when I couldnt work out the last movements

Thanks so much for all the reassurance! I’m sorry others are feeling anxious too but it is good to know I’m not alone.

I have been in once for monitoring which made me feel much better but they were so busy I did feel a bit bad taking up their time, although that wouldn’t stop me from going in again if I was worried. It’s just hard to separate genuine concern with unnecessary panic!

I have an anterior placenta but ironically this baby is super active which actually makes the quiet periods more unnerving if that makes any sense!

I'm the same with the anterior placenta but he is also very active! He has quiet days though where I spend the day worrying, then will go mental in the evening.
Please don't worry about wasting the midwifes time though. I kept saying sorry when I went for my monitoring, and she ended up telling me off for it! They see loads of people every day who are worrying unnecessarily, but they'd rather check and know everything is ok. I totally get how you feel though, but you and the baby are more important than anything.