Stillbirth Anxiety- how to cope.

[SophSoph92]

Hello all,
I am 32 wks exactly today and in the past few days I have noticed my anxiety relating to stillbirth completely spiral. I cannot concentrate on anything other than the fact I think my baby boy will die. It's awful. I'm did 15th March and working until 2nd March (that's the plan!) but I'm sitting here at work at the moment thinking of nothing else.

I am sure others have these anxious thoughts too and was wondering how they dealt with them?
I've made a Midwife appointment to discuss my fears, but would a GP appointment be more appropriate?
Has anyone had these concerns and been able to effectively remedy them?

Just looking for a little advice please.

Thank you ❤️

Aw you poor thing that sounds awful. Not exactly the same as you, but I've always been worried about health and so when I got pregnant I became convinced for ages that I would develop DVT and die. It was so silly, but I then started imagining little pains in my legs and panicking. I don't really know what stopped me thinking like that, but I did do a lot of googling and found out actual facts about DVT and how it is treated, and I suppose that made me feel a bit better. But it was almost like it was just a phase. Definitely talk to your midwife, and if she thinks you need to see the Dr she should tell you that. Sorry my post prob isn't very helpful, but just know that many people have these excessive worries in pregnancy and you can get through them

I'm requesting a Cs partly for this reason. Much safer for baby.
Also, it's likely that I will be induced about 38 weeks, if I get that far (bad history), and I understand the risk of EMCS is so much higher with induction that I just can't risk his life.
It's a miracle I've even got this far (21 weeks)

I think it really depends on how much this is troubling/disrupting you. All pregnant women worry about it (it takes over nicely from worrying about miscarriage) but if you are miserable or struggling to function because you are so anxious about it then I think you should contact your midwife to access perinatal mental health services - they are likely to be better equipped to help than your GP.

The odds of it happening are very low but if you're really struggling with the anxiety, I imagine knowing that doesn't help you very much...

Yes I had this with my DS.
I suffered 3 miscarriages before him and so the terror felt so real. I remember thinking that losing him at the last minute was going to be ‘the end’ of my pregnancy story. It sounds a bizarre thought now.
To add to the strain I was induced due to fears of a small baby. The induction took a while but the care was brilliant throughout.
I found it very helpful to open every conversation with every care professional by saying ‘I have had three previous miscarriages and I’m terrified my baby will die.’
It wasn’t long before every Midwife caring for me knew the history and my concerns. They did so many checks on him throughout labour. During active labour I could hear him on the machine next to me.
He was born safely and it felt like my fear completely went as soon as I heard his first cry. You will be ok but there is no harm in telling people your fears.

I really worried about this too and it got worse the closer I got to my due date. I don't have any advice as all I did was keep reassuring myself that it was unlikely to happen and try and be positive.
Only a couple of months to go, you'll get there soon.

I think definitely talk to your GP. I remember worrying obsessively about this and then when my child is was born started to worry obsessively about things like SIDS. I recognized it was an issue and saw a therapist. Am still a bit of a worrier but not as badly as before.

Thank you everyone. I still I definitely need to get seen and maybe do some CBT therapy. Everyone says you don't stop worrying once they're born, so I need to sort it before it ruins me! I would love to be one of those chilled mums who just goes with the flow and enjoys it! A woman I know what so relaxed and had the 'what will be will be attitude' that she didn't even have a scan or test until right at the end, for them to check placenta! That's maybe a bit extreme for me hehe but I'd love to get some of her chill...