Anxiety in pregnancy- any advice

[Smurfy23]

Sorry this is a bit of a long rambling one!

Am nearly 12 weeks pregnant with dc2. Scan is this Friday.

Pretty much since I found out I was pregnant I've been quite anxious and worrying about a lot of things. I really struggled with sleep for about 5 weeks- would get to sleep fine but then wake up in the middle of the night (either needing the loo or dd1 was crying) and then be awake for about 2 hours. Every night!

That seems to have passed but I'm still feeling quite anxious about everything- worrying about a lot and just feeling like I can't be my usual (mega) strong self.

I am usually a pretty tough cookie and very unemotional. I was a bit like this in my first pregnancy but not on this scale.

I'm hoping the scan on Friday will help a bit but has anyone else got any suggestions for what else i can do? I mentioned it to my midwife about 3 weeks ago and am seeing her again on Monday. DH and DM also know about the sleep problems and a bit about how anxious I am.

You can ask for a referral to the pregnancy mental health team.

I suffer terribly from anxiety in pregnancy despite having no mental health issues generally (I'm convinced for me it's hormonal).

I think it's much more common than people realise. I would definitely mention it to your midwife and see if they can refer you. I think you might need to push it a bit though as in my experience they expect a certain level of anxiety and do you do need to make it clear how bad it is.

I hope you feel better soon.

Thanks both- had no idea there was a pregnancy mental health team. What would they do, do you know? Sorry- might be stating the obvious!

I saw them after I had my DD. A lovely lady came round to my house for a cuppa and asked me some questions from a questionnaire. Based on that I was referred to a clinical psychologist who only works with pregnant women and women with babies. I was not suffering from anxiety so who you need to see with be different.

I found the whole experience to be very positive.

I'm 37 weeks with an IVF pregnancy and had awful anxiety for the first few months as I was terrified of things going wrong but with every week or milestone that passed it eased off a bit. I discussed it with my midwife and she asked me why things would go wrong for me and what I was doing that would make them likely to go wrong and tried to make me consider things rationally. Anxiety isn't rational but sometimes when I was feeling overwhelmed I'd take a few deep breaths and remind myself of all the things I was doing to ensure my baby was developing well and how statistics were on my side.