Health school for expectant mothers

The main goal of classes at the «Health school for expectant mothers» is the formation of a positive attitude to motherhood, a thoughtful and conscious attitude to self-condition, the actualization and understanding by women the joys of motherhood, their own femininity, the formation and strengthening of a positive emotional connection between mother and child.

Classes are built on the principle of conversation, in which a dialogue is held between the psychologist and expectant mothers. The main topics are:

1. questions of intrauterine development, parenting and baby tuition.
2. self-regulation, relaxation, breathing training
3. working through fears and anxieties that arise during pregnancy and greatly complicate its normal course
4. peculiarities of marital relationships during pregnancy
5. constructive methods for resolving conflict situations
6. parent-child relationships, preparation of the oldest child for the appearance of the youngest, individual psychological characteristics of children.

Anxiety during pregnancy

Few moments in a woman’s life can compare in intensity of emotions over time when she bears a child.

During pregnancy, the entire body of a woman undergoes significant changes, which in itself contributes to the development of anxiety. Physiological rearrangement in the central nervous system leads to the fact that exhaustion and a weakened physical state may well become a cause of concern. That is, the expectant mother is initially, according to physiological indicators, predisposed to anxiety.

In addition, the following factors highlight the anxiety of expectant mothers:

• Unplanned, spontaneous pregnancy. Seeing the positive results of the test, the woman frantically tries to remember which alcoholic beverages she drank, how many cigarettes she smoked and which medications she took. If the counting results are disappointing, panic begins.
• Possible complications during pregnancy that may affect the health of the unborn child. The spectrum of anxiety here is very voluminous: from the work on a computer considered to be unhealthy, to vaccinations that have not been done once and fears of getting the influenza or rubella.
• Fear of childbirth. It manifests itself in the expectation of pain, a feeling of helplessness, a lack of power over her own body.
• Genetic fears. This may be the fear of the birth of an inferior child due to irreversible natural causes.
• Aesthetic fears. A woman is afraid of the changes that occur with the face and figure, and wonders whether she will get her body back.
• Fear about the health of the unborn child.
• Fear of becoming a bad mother. A woman doubts her own ability to properly care for a child.
• Fear of responsibility for the fate of the child. No one is so responsible for the life and health of another person as a mother for a child.
• Fear of the future. Often the expectant mother is frightened by various changes in the family and at work related to the appearance of the child: from material and housing difficulties to a change in relations with her husband and career inhibition.

The upcoming changes are really very exciting. The flow of negative thoughts as a «snowball» increases and intensifies anxiety. From these thoughts, appetite, sleep, general condition worsen. Modern medical and psychological studies show that the thoughts and emotions that visit a mother during pregnancy have a direct impact on the development of the unborn baby and on his self-awareness.

The connection between mother and child is so great that a constant feeling of anxiety and worries is transmitted to the baby. He begins to worry too, he is scared. He knows absolutely nothing about the economic crisis, shortage of money or housing, and he has no idea about the reasons for his mother’s mood.

He needs a sense of security, care and love. It is important to think about him, talk about him, share impressions with him, be surprised and rejoice. The positive mood of the future mother is equated with the developing one for the child: strengthens him, helps to grow confident and strong. That is why it is important to be aware of your own thoughts, feelings and sensations. After all, it is we ourselves who are its authors, which means that only we ourselves can change anything.

In overcoming anxiety and worries, the skills of self-regulation, deep breathing, relaxation, muscle gymnastics, etc. are very effective. It is necessary to learn how to shift thoughts, notice and enjoy the most ordinary and familiar things. In the classes at the «Health school for expectant mothers», various exercises are demonstrated to master these ways of relieving anxiety.

To acquire peace and harmony, it is important to understand that the mother conveys experience to the baby. What this experience will be depends on the mother. Her feelings and consequently the feeling of the baby depend on what she thinks about events in her life. A woman's awareness of the importance of her own mood and feeling at every moment in time helps to relate differently to what is happening.

Communication before birth

Life before birth is filled with the mystery and magic of transformations. Psychiatrist Thomas Verney provided evidence of the emotional, psychological and intellectual development of the child’s personality in the prenatal period. It turns out that the fetus can see, hear, experience and, at a primitive level, even learn!

Now it is known for certain that, starting from 6 weeks, it is possible to fix the brain impulses of a child, he begins to respond to light.

10 – 11 weeks, this is the time when the baby begins to feel touch, heat, vibration, pain, pressure and not only feel, but also react. If he “doesn’t like” the feeling, he moves away or turns away.

18 – 20 weeks – the child already shows his character. Where the «goody-goody» hearing loud noises is scared, more active babies can get angry. The facial expression of a child expresses pleasure, anger, screaming, crying, a smile appears. The child already hears and «remembers» individual words and phrases, distinguishes voices, and has musical preferences. It is known that children like melodic music, especially kids are fond of Mozart and Vivaldi.

At the sixth month, the vestibular apparatus develops – this means that the child begins to distinguish the position of his body in space and rolls over. At the same time, taste appears, and the smell will develop only by the ninth month. There are amazing stories of famous musicians who could play some kind of musical pieces without ever even seeing notes! It turns out that their mother played these pieces many times during pregnancy.

Long-term observations of prenatologists confirm that whether the child will be happy or unhappy, aggressive or gentle, calm or irritable in his subsequent life depends to some extent on what kind of signals the child received while being in the womb.

Since the baby’s hearing develops first of all, and by the time of birth, the baby can already recognize mom and dad by voice and intonation, then of course you can talk to him. Do not just mentally communicate or whisper something quietly, but precisely to speak.

Another great way to communicate is singing. When a woman sings, she connects with her feelings and emotions and experiences them much more fully. And, of course, the child also feels stronger impulses from his mother – not only the voice now tells him about love and tenderness, but her breathing and the whole body seem to be saturated with these vibrations.

It has long been known that a little man develops well when his mother moves a lot: walks, makes various movements, changes her body position. All this contributes to the development of the brain of the child. It has already been mentioned that during pregnancy the vestibular apparatus of the child develops, precisely for this movement is needed.

When the mother walks, the child feels swaying, when she bends down – the space of the child also changes position, when she turns over – the baby also turns over. All this prepares the baby for the birth, because here, in the conditions of gravity, it is very important to be able to coordinate your body, feel the top and bottom in order to learn how to roll, crawl, and then walk.

Doing exercises, you will probably notice that some of them are pleasant to the child, others not so much, and, when doing them, you will have to adapt to the baby – sometime to do a little slower, maybe choose a smaller range of motion, relax more, etc. All this is also communication, because you do gymnastics together.

From 18 days, the heart of the child beats and responds to the impulses of our feelings and emotions.

This is both the paradox and the explanation of the fact that many women feel their child in the womb even before any signs of pregnancy have appeared. When we sing to a child, we talk about our love and tenderness for him, when we put hands on the stomach, when we see beautiful nature or the creations of human hands – our hearts communicate, and the very heart connection that helps parents to further understand their child without words is established.