Avoiding stress in early pregnancy

[tedding79]

I have a really stressful job and home life and I am trying to avoid stress and keep calm during early pregnancy- what has worked for you?

Exercise and you might also try hypnotherapy or guided meditation for relaxation. Really though, unless you're talking about war zone levels of stress, it won't have any effect on your pregnancy (other than just making you feel more miserable than you already do). I had massive amounts of work stress (and a 6 hour commute, leaving 5am and not getting home until late) and also from dealing with a difficult family situation that led dh and I to go NC with family members in my last pregnancy. Easy, straightforward pregnancy, even after a previous mc. But exercise (walking, swimming, and yoga later on) and doing some hypnotherapy practice aimed at relaxation helped.

It sounds trite but don't sweat the small stuff!

Seriously, if you can't control it then don't stress it. Anything you can change then do it, make life less stressful all round!

If your job is stressful to the extent that you are stressed out/bag of nerves then I would recommend talking to your dr with a view to getting signed off. Is there any way you could reduce your workload once you tell your manager you are pregnant? (I know you probably don't want to do that yet.)
Regarding home life, I'm concerned if that is very stressful as well. For me, my OH took over a lot of the household stuff in early pregnancy and that was the best help I could have had.

In my first pregnancy, at my first doctors appt he told me he thought I had a heart murmur (no doctor had ever told me that before) and referred me for an Echo test for three months time. I then spent the three months completely freaking out only for the test to show everything was completely fine. Baby was fine. My second pregnancy seems much more relaxed by comparison.

Exercise can help with stress, swimming is good. Also ice-cream

Pregnancy yoga once a week and swimming helped me.