advice and reccomendations on using tech during pregnancy

[livlove23]

I have health anxiety in general (like proper spiraly overthinking about my own body even outside of anything pregnancy-related), so the idea of being pregnant makes me extra concerned, like it'd just give my brain more to fixate on.

To deal with my own health anxiety i really love my apple watch. The data keeps me calm as i can see all my vitals are okay. I can't help but wonder if something like a wearable tech device for my pregnancy would actually help calm my nerves. To tell me baby is growing okay and the pregnancy is on track etc. Or would it just become one more thing to obsessively check and make the anxiety worse? Does anyone know if something like that exists, or has anyone tried anything similar? Really interested in anyones thoughts or experience on this

Nothing is going to tell you your baby is ok unfortunately (speaking from someone whose had many losses).

I really would suggest counselling before getting pregnant if your hwlath anxiety is that bad.

I agree.

pregnancy can be an anxious time for someone without mental health considerations. If you’re struggling without a pregnancy, then it will be significantly amplified with a pregnancy. Also no data will guarantee safety and you also don’t know how to accurately interpret the data in the way a health professional would.

I would look to address anxiety via counselling because anxiety itself will be harmful to a pregnancy I would imagine(?) Also when the baby comes you’ll be beside yourself figuring out all the weird quirks they have when poorly etc. so your own anxiety could worsen.

Good luck on your journey OP.

I used to suffer with terrible health anxiety. At points I really thought I was cracking it and part of that was the obsessive checking and reassurance I was giving myself from all sorts of places including my Fitbit. But they were temporary plasters not a fix. I didn’t realise just how much the hyper vigilance was costing me day to day to be honest.

The only thing that has worked and I can say for me it really has made everything better was seeing a CBT therapist and engaging with the work (after my last DC). It’s taught me why my mind goes down a certain path and how to interrupt those thoughts and how to sit with uncertainty, which I used to find impossible to do.

My kids (still young) now benefit from a mum that is much calmer and not so anxious all the time. But I really wish I had tried it before getting pregnant the first time because looking back it would 100% have made the journey much easier to navigate regardless of the challenges.

I feel like I was almost exactly the same as you and would definitely have tried to justify anything that meant more reassurance. But like PPs I’d agree that working on the anxiety itself would be much more beneficial to you and your future DC/s.

Wish you all the best

The Apple watch is feeding this, not fixing it. Therapy is the right place to start. You won’t want to spend 9 months in a state of extreme anxiety, nor pass this onto a child.

Unfortunately no amount of tech is going to help keep you calm, there's evidence that shows the opposite is true and getting reassurance from things like apple watches or dopplers only makes you more anxious/ reliant on them to stay calm which can be a vicious cycle

I would recommend counselling or CBT, there might be a long waiting list through the NHS but sometimes charities can help a bit sooner or there's also online resources you can start today like silver cloud. I think you just need to Google silver cloud and you should be able to get an access code to start for free

On a more positive note, pregnancy seemed to rewire my brain to be less anxious (I think I was forced to accept things weren't in my control which helped) and I also know a couple of other people who found being pregnant helpful for their anxiety. Obviously this is more of an exception to the rule but it can happen

Nothing can tell you for certain that the pregnancy is okay op. You could have a scan etc and be fine and lose the baby the same day unfortunately. You should sort the anxiety not monitor everything.

Hello, I had really terrible anxiety postpartum with my first and think this is something you need to seek professional help for.

It doesn’t stop once the baby is here and there are infinite ways to track data on a baby that I thought were helping me (I am very analytical) but were actually sending me completely loopy.

Before my second I had EMDR therapy. And I tracked nothing (not pregnancy, sleep, feeds, nappies anything) and, despite him having some real health risks, I was happy. Like actually happy. It was a complete revelation.