So many women feel like they are going through the emotional mill when they’re trying to conceive. Whether you have been trying for months or years or experienced miscarriage, struggling to become a parent can make the most rational person feel like their mental health is slipping away. It’s vital to look after your mental health when you are trying to conceive, but how can you do this effectively?
Consider Your Final Options
This is all a journey. When it comes to trying to get pregnant, there are no stages but you need to keep on focusing on what your final options are. If you cannot conceive naturally, you can take solace in the number of embryo donation services or IVF treatment facilities out there. It’s important to be pragmatic and practical in so many different ways. You may be chomping at the bit to conceive naturally, but you need to also figure out other options if the day comes that you cannot.
Speak to Professionals
It’s something that almost every woman has gone through, especially fertility specialists. Speaking to professionals should give you a far greater set of tools to help you understand the process of trying to conceive. But when it comes to dealing with your mental health, speaking to somebody that has been doing this for a number of years should be able to reassure you that how you are feeling is not unusual, and there are many things that you can do to help yourself.
Stop Blaming Yourself
We can all feel like it’s our fault if something is just not happening. If you’ve had a miscarriage in the past, you may be sick with worry that the next pregnancy is going to end in the same way. The problem we all have is that we blame ourselves. If things don’t go according to plan, we need to utilize the many strategies to overcome self-blame and realize that what we are doing at any stage of trying to conceive is always going to be the best we can do. Therefore, you should not blame yourself if something doesn’t go in the way you pictured it.
Don’t Worry About Stress
While stress can affect your chances of getting pregnant, stress is something that you need to figure out how to minimize. Physical stress and psychological stress can cause major disruptions in your menstrual cycle, but if you have good eggs and there is good sperm, stress will not interfere with the process. Stress is something that we shouldn’t worry about anyway as this will give us additional stress.
Keep Life Simple
If you are feeling anxious in life, the fact is that you need to slow down and set boundaries for yourself. You might spend a lot of time brainstorming reasons why you’re not pregnant yet, but this is not going to help you in the long run. When you feel like you are at breaking point, this is when you need to put the brakes on everything and start to make life simpler.
Author: Mandy Kloppers
Mandy is a qualified therapist who treats depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, trauma, and many other types of mental health issues. She provides online therapy around the world for those needing support and also provides relationship counselling.
