First Trimester Emotional and Physical Needs
By the time that you find out you’re pregnant, often the first trimester is already half completed. This is not a bad thing, often the first trimester includes some pretty bad early pregnancy symptoms such as morning sickness or extreme tiredness. So although you’re mostly getting your head around being pregnant, you’ll probably want the first trimester to end as quickly as possible.
Also, you may find yourself at sixes and sevens from an emotional and physical view. It’s easy to forget that there is an emotional impact of becoming pregnant, as well as some obvious physical impacts. We thought that it would be useful to include a guide to first trimester emotional and physical needs:
First trimester physical needs
- Take the time to visit your health professional and understand your prenatal needs.
- Make a committed effort to your health, fitness and diet. This means that during the first trimester, you promise yourself that you will eat the right foods, take exercise and stop smoking and drinking if appropriate.
- The first trimester is the stage in pregnancy when the insides of your body are working over time. You will feel very tired for the first twelve months, so try to find time to relax and get plenty of early nights.
- In order to promote a healthy body and mind and a good nights sleep, consider joining a local fitness club that have activities that cater for pregnant women. Failing that, you could take a walk, go swimming or join a yoga class. It is not about quantity, more about quality during the first trimester.
First trimester emotional needs
- The first trimester is a very emotional time, so you should not have high hopes of solving world peace during these times. However, it is crucial that you are open about any apprehension that you may be feeling during this time. If you are nervous, frightened or have any worries, speak to your partner, a friend or a medical professional.
- Many women have described how they have enjoyed recording their pregnancy, either in a journal or with photographs.
- Recording your feelings, hopes and apprehensions is a way of getting them out on the open. Once they are out in the open, they can often be solved.
- Try to meet with other pregnant women during your first trimester. This is a great opportunity to share concerns, ideas or to give each other moral support.
- The first trimester is a time for getting used to being pregnant, however you may start to form some views about how you would like to have your baby, perhaps a natural birth or a home birth? You have plenty of time to find out more information.
There are probably lots more points that we could add for both physical and emotion needs during the first trimester, the difficulty is that every women is different. We all have our own emotional make up, so the important thing is to ensure that your emotional support group is in place. Where possible, you should not leave your concerns or anxieties to linger, talk about them openly. It is very true, a problem shared during the first trimester, is often a problem halved.
Read more of our articles on the first trimester
Getting Used to the First Trimester
Fatigue and Morning Sickness in The First Trimester
Read about the other trimesters
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