Prioritizing Your Mental Health During Pregnancy

Physical health is crucial for a happy pregnancy—but prenatal mental health is an equally vital piece of the puzzle. Whether you’re struggling with mood swings, body image, or a preexisting mental illness, many expecting parents face psychological challenges on the way to their due dates.

Managing prenatal (and postpartum) mental health may reduce the likelihood of negative birth outcomes for both parent and child. While a variety of maternal mental health care practices and techniques can help parents-to-be support their mental hygiene and mental wellbeing, it’s equally important to know when to reach out for help: As many as 14% of women struggle with suicidal thoughts during pregnancy.

No matter what mental health concern or emotional obstacles you’re facing, remember that these challenges aren’t insurmountable—and you are not the first pregnant person to experience them. By understanding what impacts pregnancy mental health, common problems, and solutions, you’ll be better equipped to find support on your journey to becoming a parent.

What does pregnancy mental health look like?

Mental health is generally defined as your social, psychological, and emotional well-being.

However, at any stage of life, mental health isn’t a matter of maintaining a sunny-sided outlook all of the time. Rather, it involves developing the capacity and coping mechanisms to hold a variety of emotions—often conflicting ones—so that they don’t overly inhibit your ability to engage positively and constructively with life.

Rightly so, pregnancy presents a unique set of circumstances that can make this goal seem easier said than done. Some common obstacles to mental wellbeing during pregnancy include:

• Hormonal fluctuations – Surges of estrogen and progesterone in the first trimester can result in mood swings. These and other hormonal fluctuations can make emotional equilibrium very difficult to calibrate.
• Physical hardships – Pregnancy arrives with all sorts of aches, pains, and complaints that can be physically burdensome. Many people feel out of control of their bodies, making mental well-being difficult to attain.
• The pressures of planning for a baby – Life can be stressful on its own, but adding a baby into the mix can make those stressors feel nearly unmanageable. In fact, many pregnant people experience generalized anxiety disorder in their first trimester. For some, continues into postpartum life. For those navigating the anxieties that come with pregnancy, exploring tips for pregnancy anxiety can offer practical strategies for maintaining emotional well-being.

Depending on your general health, life circumstances, and mental health history, you may count these and other factors as contributing to psychological imbalance during pregnancy. The most common one among pregnant women is prenatal depression, which can often arise with symptoms like:

• Loss of interest in life
• Low confidence
• Feelings of worthlessness, uselessness, and discouragement
• Persistent irritability
• Appetite changes
• Fatigue
• Difficulty concentrating

If you notice a persistent change in your mindset that’s adversely impacting your quality of life, try to acknowledge it and seek out help as soon as possible. Countless resources are available to support expecting parents (we’ll detail some below). And remember—you do not have to struggle alone with your maternal mental health concern.

5 Ways to Support Your Mental Well-Being During Pregnancy

Whether you’re confronting a condition like prenatal depression or are just looking to prioritize mental health on your 9-month journey, the mental health tools you use now will serve you and your family into the future.

Think of the following suggestions as a starter pack: As you discover what works for you, you’ll add more resources to your toolkit. Adapting to parenthood is a lifelong journey, and on the way, you’ll be equipped to share resources with your baby as they grow and navigate the emotional world.

#1 Focus on Your Basic Needs

When our physical bodies’ needs aren’t met, it can be very difficult to maintain a healthy mindset and emotional baseline.

In pregnancy, though, you may find that your baseline physical needs differ significantly from the ones you’re used to—and that’s okay! Learning to listen to your body’s cues and accommodate its needs where you can is an inevitable and important part of a healthy pregnancy.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your changing body’s needs, try to focus on:

• Getting adequate rest
• Rounding out your prenatal nutrition
• Moving your body regularly

#2 Redefine Your Self-Care Routine

Self-care is an important part of tending to your mental health. But depending on your preferred ways to unwind, pregnancy self-care may mean something very different from your usual ritual.

So, while you may not be able to enjoy a glass of merlot or a soak in the hot tub, there are plenty of other practices to explore that won’t harm your growing baby. Try prenatal yoga or massage to feel good in your body; going on nature walks or taking time to journal can also help settle your mind.

It’s equally helpful to remember that “self-care” doesn’t always mean indulgence. Sometimes, it means starting your baby’s nursery design early so you won’t be anxious about it later, or simply leaving time for household chores so they don’t become an afterthought. Whatever helps you clear mental space to just be, do your best to be kind to yourself and make it a regular feature of your routine.

#3 Identify Your Worries, Fears, and “Negative Self-Talk”

If you find anxious thoughts or negative beliefs are interfering with your mental health during pregnancy, know that you’re not alone. Plenty of pregnant people struggle with intrusive negative thoughts—it means nothing about their personal worth or future competency as a parent.

A cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) exercise known as cognitive restructuring may be useful for reckoning with and reversing intrusive ideas:

1. Identify the negative thought – Jot down the negative feelings you’re experiencing and any beliefs that are attached to them. For instance, “I’m worried I’ll be a bad parent.”
2. Ask questions – For instance, do you have any evidence that this belief is true? Is the thought founded in your feelings or facts? What if this belief were true—what is the “worst” that could happen? Are there other ways you could interpret this belief (perhaps out of “black and white” thinking, and into a more nuanced thought)?
3. Consider what you gain or lose by maintaining this thought – In CBT, this process is known as a “cost-benefit analysis.” Examine what impact this thought has on your activities and feelings in the short and long term. Do you benefit from it in some way? What do you lose out on?
4. Restructure the thought – Let’s return to the idea “I’m worried I’ll be a bad parent.” After examining the thought, its origins, and its benefits and drawbacks, you might restructure the thought to be something like, “Feeling overwhelmed with everything there is to do before my baby is born demonstrates how deeply I care about being a good parent.”

Sometimes, CBT techniques can be difficult to perform on your own. There’s no shame in seeking out a mental health professional, especially if negative emotions in pregnancy feel unmanageable. Doing so can help you develop your repertoire of mental health resources, as well as provide a healthy outlet for exploring mental health hurdles during and after pregnancy.

#4 Connect with Other Pregnant People

Talking to your partner and friends who know you can be a wonderful way to stay in touch with yourself and loved ones during pregnancy. However, many individuals find something special in connecting with others who are navigating the same life experience at the same time.

Pregnancy or parenthood support groups can be a wonderful resource in this domain. Many groups are held in-person as well as online, making connecting with other parents unprecedentedly accessible.

#5 Open Up to a Mental Health Professional

Sometimes, mental health struggles during pregnancy can pose a danger to expecting parents and their unborn babies. Perinatal depression impacts up to 20% of parents-to-be, and if left untreated, it could lead to poorer birth outcomes and delays in infant cognitive or emotional development.

For expecting parents who are struggling with perinatal depression, the National Institute of Mental Health endorses two evidence-based therapy styles (these may also be useful for other mood struggles during pregnancy):

• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
• Interpersonal therapy (IPT)

In contrast to CBT, IPT explores how life circumstances and events play a role in emotional well-being. It can also assist in refining your communication skills and forging more robust social networks to support you and your family before and after your baby is born.

When to Reach Out for Support

If you’re concerned intrusive thoughts might cause you to harm yourself or others, it’s important to acknowledge them and reach out to a care provider as soon as possible. Simply vocalizing your thoughts and feelings can put more space between you and the contents of your mind, allowing you and a provider to create a care plan suited to your needs.

Find Support Throughout Parenthood with SneakPeek®

Pregnancy is filled with peaks and valleys—physical and psychological. Equipping yourself with knowledge is just one way to step proactively in the direction of mental well-being, supporting yourself and your child as a future parent.

Learn even more about what’s ahead by picking up SneakPeek’s Early Gender DNA Test. With this at-home gender blood test, you can discover your baby’s fetal sex as soon as 6 weeks into your pregnancy with over 99% clinically proven accuracy and DNA-based results. Just take your sample at home and mail it to SneakPeek labs. We’ll triple-review your results before sending them back to you—typically on the same day we receive them.

More than 1 million parents trust SneakPeek test to share the news of their future baby’s gender. Find out why we’re the #1 OBGYN-recommended at-home early gender test by exploring SneakPeek online today.

Editorial Policy

At SneakPeek, our commitment is to provide accurate, up-to-date, and reliable information to empower our readers. Our content is thoroughly researched, reviewed by medical experts, and fact-checked to ensure its credibility. We prioritize the well-being and education of our readers, and our editorial policy adheres to the highest standards of integrity and accuracy in all our articles.

This post has been reviewed for accuracy by the following medical professional:

Katie Smith, MSN, APRN, CNM

Katie Smith is a seasoned Certified Nurse Midwife and a nurturing mother to six children, offering a unique blend of professional expertise and personal experience. She is the founder of Birth Your Way Midwifery and Women’s Wellness Center in Bay County, Florida. Katie's comprehensive approach to care is informed by her hands-on experience in motherhood and her passion for empowering women through their birthing journey. Her dedication extends beyond her center as she actively engages in community wellness and family health education.

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