Rainbow Pregnancy Anxiety

[Skittle989]

Hi,

I am currently 6 weeks pregnant with a rainbow baby. It has taken us almost two long years of grief and getting over anxieties to try for another baby after an early miscarriage. I have been longing for a baby ever since our loss and I thought that I would be over the moon with excitement although I find myself feeling very negative about my pregnancy, I am very anxious of something going wrong and very on edge as we get closer to the stage that we lost before. I am growing more nervous about our first midwife appointment and our first scan. I am literally in pieces. This pregnancy has bought back so many terrible memories of grief and loss, with that and the normal pregnancy hormones I am a mess. I don't feel like I have anyone to speak to because no one really understands and I almost don't want to talk about it because I feel bad for feeling like this about something that I should be so happy about. I wanted a baby, I'm pregnant and I should feel happy but my anxiety is ruling over that! I know I need to find some kind of support and I'm hoping hear other people's experiences on how they coped with anxiety during their rainbow pregnancy.

I’ve had a couple of miscarriages (one first trimester, one in the second) and also a baby born in the third trimester who died at the hospital. In between my two miscarriages, I’ve been lucky enough to have two healthy DC but I suffered badly with perinatal depression and anxiety as a result of what I had been through. I was under the Perinatal Mental Health Team and also had CBT for anxiety during my pregnancy. My hospital has a specialist midwife team to help women who are struggling in a similar way and I found my GP, who I saw before I even booked in, to be really supportive and helpful.

Could you see if your booking in appointment could be brought forward to be earlier so that you can discuss what support there is available to you?

Depending upon how you feel about early scans, there are lots of companies that offer them from six or seven weeks and that might give you a bit of extra reassurance for now.