Pregnancy & preparation
How to reduce comparison with other pregnant women on social media
Social media does not merely show other pregnancies; it selects, repeats, and ranks them until one version begins to look normal. Changing…
Stage
Pregnancy
A selection of guides for the questions, changes and decisions that come with this stage.
52 articles
Recommended reading
Guides for you
Pregnancy & preparation
How to live with emotional uncertainty during pregnancy
Pregnancy uncertainty cannot always be reduced with more information. Sometimes the task is learning how to live a day that does not…
Pregnancy & preparation
Feeling reassured after a pregnancy appointment and worried again a few hours later
Short-lived relief does not mean the appointment failed. It may mean your mind is treating reassurance as something that has to be…
Pregnancy & preparation
The wait between pregnancy appointments when your mind will not stop thinking
Between appointments, little may seem to happen visibly while your mind stays busy. Giving the waiting period structure can reduce how much…
Parenting & behavior
Feeling afraid to buy things for the baby too early
A crib, tiny onesie, or shopping list can stop feeling like an object and start feeling like a statement of confidence in…
Pregnancy & preparation
Feeling afraid to get too excited about the pregnancy
Excitement can feel dangerous because it makes visible how much you want something you cannot fully control. Holding it back may feel…
Pregnancy & preparation
Feeling like you cannot fully relax during pregnancy
When monitoring gets confused with caring, relaxation can feel negligent. But useful attention and permanent vigilance are not the same thing.
Pregnancy & preparation
Constantly thinking “what if something goes wrong?” during pregnancy
The “what if?” question promises preparation, but it often creates another question every time the last one is answered. Relief may come…
Potty, hygiene & autonomy
Fear you won’t know how to care for a newborn as a first-time mom
Before the baby is in front of you, ordinary care tasks can look like skills everyone else somehow already knows. Holding, dressing,…
Pregnancy & preparation
Thinking “what have I gotten myself into?” during a pregnancy you wanted
You can spend months hoping for a pregnancy and still look at a positive test and briefly think, “What have we done?”…
Pregnancy & preparation
Doubting whether you were ready to become a mother after getting pregnant
“We were ready” can feel true before pregnancy and strangely untrue afterward. Not because everything objectively changed, but because the word ready…
Parenting & behavior
Fear of losing your freedom after the baby is born
You can deeply want your baby and still look at an unscheduled afternoon, a spontaneous dinner, or the ability to leave the…