Mood Swings during Pregnancy
Pregnancy is the time where you undergo mood swings. A lot of women experience this during their pregnancy at one time or the other. Mood swings generally occur due to a variety of reasons like the hormonal changes, stress, changes in the metabolism and fatigue. For example, your mood would be bright as the sun in the morning, but completely irritable in afternoon.
On the one hand, you would be excited and all in a dreamy mood about your baby and the very next moment you would have raised a hell to get an ice-cream from the store close by which would be closing down in the next 15 minutes. It is very crucial for all the people around you to know about your mood swings and it is similarly important for you to know how you should take care of your mood swings.
Hormonal Changes and Your Mood
Do you know what happens when there are tremendous changes in your estrogen and progesterone hormones? These two hormones are responsible for affecting you neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemicals which are messengers between another cell and a neuron. The reason behind mood swings are the levels of serotonin and dopamine among neurotransmitters.
Serotonin makes us become angry, aggressive and affects our appetite, metabolism and not missing out our mood. It also causes vomiting.
Dopamine is responsible and associated with the feelings of pleasure and love. Moods swings take place between the first trimester approximately between 6 – 10 weeks. But, moods swings don’t leave your back just right now, they come back right before birth during your third trimester and your body is getting ready for the delivery.
How to Cope with Pregnant Mood Swings
You will have to accept that every pregnant woman goes through mood swings and you are no exception. These moods swings can be mild and severe as well. Moods swings are just another additional add-on to the various things that come along with pregnancy. The following is a short list which will help you to cope with stress and your mood swings:
- Sleep a lot.
- Get engaged in regular physical activity
- Eat healthy
- Spend good time with your husband
- Take a quick nap
- Go for a stroll
- See a movie with a friend
- Don’t be so rough on yourself
- Try a pregnancy yoga class or meditation
- Get a massage
The above mentioned are a few suggestions that you can try to keep yourself happy. However, you should not over exert yourself when getting involved in physical activities.
Pregnancy Depression
There are 11 million American women who suffer from depression every year. Depression could be noticed in women during puberty till their menopause, but can also knock your door at any age and any time. If you are going through mood swings which last for more than two weeks and you don’t seem to be coming out of it, then it is your turn to talk about this with your concerned doctor.
The following are a few signs of depression that you should watch out for:
- Repeated nervousness and increased irritability.
- Sleeping problems.
- Alteration in eating habits.
- Loosing concentration very soon on anything.
- Short term loss of memory.
If your mood swings are happening quite often and rather have a severe face, it is important for you and your unborn child’s health that you should visit a doctor. This will help you in discussing your options. All you should understand in the end is that you are not alone, and mood swings do take place during pregnancy. It’s completely normal.
Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/biewoef.
