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Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

Rushed to labour and then given birth to an adult or a litter of animals recently? Well, surprisingly enough, you’re not alone. This is a common theme in pregnancy dreams and thankfully doesn’t mean you have anything to worry about! When we’re pregnant, our dreams will often take a vivid turn and a recurring topic will be the growing baby.

Although everyone dreams, a lot of people don’t remember their night time adventures. (This may have been you pre-pregnancy!) However during week by week pregnancy the hormone progesterone means we experience more emotional highs and lows, which may be translated onto our subconscious self.

Remembering Dreams
Pregnant women are much more likely to have disturbed sleep thanks to needing the toilet, anxiety, heartburn, nausea or insomnia. The more times someone wakes up in the night, the more likely they are to remember their dreams. So this is why it might suddenly seem like your subconscious is going crazy as soon as you find out your expecting, or even before.

Obviously, once we know we’re pregnant, we think about it nearly every moment of the waking day. This is why you often dream about your baby, as your mind is making sense of the day’s events.

Nightmares?
When you experience nightmares, it’s hard not to panic and feel like your body is trying to tell you that something is wrong, but nightmares during pregnancy are actually very common because of the anxiety which comes with being pregnant. Your body is trying to sort out all your fears and worries and often these can translate into nightmares of losing the baby or harm coming to you, your partner or the baby. It’s helpful to remember that dreams are meant to be therapeutic and are a natural way for your brain to process all the changes in your body and mind.

Although some women can revel in the new creativity they are experiencing at night, others may have more disturbing dreams which leads to insomnia. If you are worried about your sleeping pattern then talk to your GP and see if they can help. Otherwise, try to enjoy your vivid new dreams and if you remember them in the morning, don’t over analyse them. Tell a friend, laugh them off and concentrate on catching up on some ‘zzz’s.

Earnest Parenting: helping pregnant moms remember that dreaming is normal.

Image courtesy of stuandgravy via Creative Commons license, some rights reserved.