Why it is so important to relax in pregnancy...

We have all heard that it is really important to stay stress-free in pregnancy but why is that? I, for one, was really stressed in my second pregnancy. I began feeling very anxious at the thought of having to go through birth again, with the first birth being a very long labour, with a back-to-back baby, pre-eclampsia, induction and a forceps delivery. So I tried my hardest to increase more of what helped me relax (meditation, swimming, being in nature, yoga) so I could feel less stressed, just because I didn't want to feel like that and I also had an intuitive feeling that the stress was not good for my unborn baby girl. I now know that any negative or fearful thoughts and feelings I was having, whilst pregnant, were being passed through my placenta to her. When a foetus is in a mother's womb, the mother is the external environment for that foetus and any emotions and feelings affect the baby. If the mother is relaxed and happy, the baby is relaxed and happy. If the mother is stressed, the baby is stressed. Halfway through the pregnancy, the baby's brain starts learning and it does so through the placenta, which aswell as delivering nutrition through the blood delivered through the placenta, also delivers the mother's emotions and thoughts. If I had known this, I would have been having all the holistic therapies I could and meditating every spare minute I had! But seriously, life is stressful, being pregnant is stressful and we can feel fear with the impending changes in our body and what lies ahead when we bring a new baby into the world. But if we can become more aware that if we can try to keep our thoughts positive, try to look after our wellbeing and health (by having a Pregnancy Massage or Maternity Reflexology or Reiki) or learning to quiet our mind with Meditation, we can only be sending positive vibes to our little bundle of joy.