Can Stress During Pregnancy Harm My Baby?

I can hear it now: “You’re stressed because stress can harm your baby, so stop stressing.”

What I can gather is that the day-to-day worries of pregnancy, birth and the general worry that you will be responsible for a whole other person (no pressure here) is par for the course so you probably don’t need to get in a twist about it.

It gets a little tricky when you are a really stressed person by nature or if something really tragic happens to throw you for a real loop, and even then, we don’t seem to be talking about a significant impact.

A lot of the sites launch into what you should do to relieve your stress like go for massage, put yourself first, take some time off, etc. and I say “hell ya” to all of the above but shouldn’t we all do this all the time? Isn’t stress always bad for us?

I don’t want to get all philosophical here, but I put that up there with “breathing will make you old” – there’s truth to it but there isn’t a heck of a lot you can do about it. I think all these people should shut their pie holes and stop worrying about pregnant ladies. Don’t they know it can harm their baby?!?

Also check out: Tips for Distinguishing Between Normal Worrying and Postpartum Anxiety