Pregnancy anxiety

[Liluliana]

Hi all! It's my first pregnancy and I'm only 6 weeks. Ever since finding out I'm pregnant I have just been constantly anxious about miscarriage! And searching through the forums it seems like a huge amount of women have sadly experienced miscarriage, and this just makes me feel even more scared. Just wondering if it's normal to feel so nervous? I haven't had many symptoms yet- sore boobs and the occasional stomach cramps. Had my first scan yesterday and all looked fine (in Germany we get a scan every month). Any tips to put my mind at ease will be greatly appreciated! Did you feel nervous during early pregnancy? Did it get better?

It’s very normal! When they start kicking you worry constantly about them kicking in patterns, then you worry about them being stillborn and so on...
This if something so precious and for the most part of you control but to worry is totally normal. MCs do happen but worrying about it won’t be a shield and neither will researching it online.

Congratulations! The chances of miscarriage drop with every day that passes. 10 weeks sees a large drop and after 12 weeks its comparatively rare. Once you get past that point there's every chance your anxiety will lift and you can start getting properly excited! Added to which that that's the time lots of tests get done so that's additional reassurance. Second trimester is the nicest. Any sickness tends to wane and you're not too big and uncomfy. Hang in there, it's early days, you'll get more used to being pregnant as you go, after all, none of us had done it before the first time and it's a mind blower to see your body just doing its thing without us being involved.

Pregnancy and motherhood frequently involve feeling out of control. It's normal but good to try to get in the habit of doing what you can, but going with the flow. Maybe try pregnancy yoga?

Could you hear the heartbeat at the scan? I’m not sure if you do at 6 weeks? I had a scan at 7+3 and the sonographer told me that once a scan had confirmed a healthy heartbeat and measurements that the risk of miscarriage drops to 5%.

We all worry, I think that’s normal, especially when you see so many sad stories online. What helps me is knowing that aside from following doctors orders there’s nothing I can do but let nature take its course. The early scan really put my mind at rest too.

And congratulations!

Huge congratulations!

I'm 22 weeks into my first pregnancy and totally understand! Now she's kicking and tumbling about, I worry I've eaten things she doesn't like! And before she was moving, I worried there was something wrong!

Try to just take one day at a time and enjoy it. Before you know it you'll be bursting out of your clothes and wondering where the months went!

Thanks everyone :) I think I was looking for some reassurance that my anxiety is normal- especially because it's too early to tell friends and family and ask them!
Re. pregnancy yoga: I literally have a yoga mat on its way to me from Amazon 🤣 I think I will spend the next few weeks trying to relax and let whatever happens happen.
I didn't hear the heartbeat on the scan, it just looked like a tiny little dot. I think what doesn't help is that I'm still not used to the typical German bedside manner: I think in the UK we expect health workers to reassure us and be friendly/excited for us, but here in Germany it's very clinical and anti-climatic 🤣

I totally get this and it's perfectly normal.

If you're really worried and find you can't stay off the internet, there are miscarriage risk calculators online - to be used sensibly, but you'll see that the overall risk % goes down every single day. I have found this helpful and reassuring, some do and some don't.

I think NHS advice is not to start any new exercise in the first trimester. Yoga is meant to be really good after that.

Bedside manner here has been really variable in my experience. Some are reassuring, some just want you out.