Do you believe that excess stress can cause harm to you and your baby?

Karmalife

I ask this because my work situation right now is one that is causing me massive amounts of stress. I am usually a calm person but due to working 12+ hour days (half of which are on my feet) I am feeling angry, resentful and just not healthy.

My stomach was a mess today and I had some cramping from it.

Have any of you felt a direct correlation between stress and how it affects your body and pregnancy? Do you believe we need to be extra careful right now when it comes to keeping calm and relaxed? Or should I just suck this all up and keep working to the point of exhaustion. Ugh. I'm torn here. Part of me feels I can handle it and the rest of me feels I shouldn't be putting my body/baby at risk.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

peanut2b

It's a proven fact that excessive amounts of stress can not only take a huge toll on YOUR body, but it can create a potential issue for your unborn child.  It's one of those things that should be avoided.  If it's giving you stomach pains and other concerns then it may be having an effect on your baby...although I'm no doctor and cannot give you specific levels of stress and the danger involved. 

I would discuss it with your doctor.

1plus1equals3

I have been in the same boat through my whole pregnancy until last week when I satrted taking time off. I felt so stressed and was working 10 hr days and like you was on my feet all the time, hardly able to sit down for more than a few min. I was so exhausted and felt unhealthy and worn out every day. But what made it all worse was all my husbands family telling me that if i stress im going to do damage to the baby. JEEEEEZZZZZZz i cried about that because it made me feel so bad, and sometimes guilty when there was nothing I could do about it because I couldnt stop working that soon.    But I dont think theres that much to that theory unless your stressing big time. Like realy realy stressed out,,, And anyways even if there is some truth to that its not good to worry about it because thats only going to add more stress on top of what your already dealing with.   So just take it one day at a time and dont stress about anything thats not worth it Imsure you and your baby will be GREAT !!!!

Karmalife

1plus1equals3:

I have been in the same boat through my whole pregnancy until last week when I satrted taking time off. I felt so stressed and was working 10 hr days and like you was on my feet all the time, hardly able to sit down for more than a few min. I was so exhausted and felt unhealthy and worn out every day. But what made it all worse was all my husbands family telling me that if i stress im going to do damage to the baby. JEEEEEZZZZZZz i cried about that because it made me feel so bad, and sometimes guilty when there was nothing I could do about it because I couldnt stop working that soon.    But I dont think theres that much to that theory unless your stressing big time. Like realy realy stressed out,,, And anyways even if there is some truth to that its not good to worry about it because thats only going to add more stress on top of what your already dealing with.   So just take it one day at a time and dont stress about anything thats not worth it Imsure you and your baby will be GREAT !!!!

 

Thank you! I think I will talk to my doctor about all of this...

mrsmikey

Absolutely.  I used to work in a very stressful environment, and me and my coworker both delivered our babies early.  Hers at 35 weeks, mine at 32.  Neither of us had any reason for delivering early.  I know those things happen for no reason all the time, but I believe stress played a part in it for both of us. 

Cilley

I am on my feet for about 10 hrs of a 12 hr shift 3x/wk. I finally had to call quits until wk 37 because I was having so many BH and i couldn't tell if they were the real deal or not and I was having a lot of trouble walking down the hall. I have also been feeling LO moving down my cervix a little almost every night. I think if you feel excess stress that the baby must feel some of it, too.

If you could take it easy, that could be good for both of you, but if you must keep working, try to take a lot of breaks! The hardest part for me is to take a break when my body tells me to. Instead, I try to push though the discomfort and coworkers, pts, and family members are the ones reminding me to take it easy.

Karmalife

peanut2b:

It's a proven fact that excessive amounts of stress can not only take a huge toll on YOUR body, but it can create a potential issue for your unborn child.  It's one of those things that should be avoided.  If it's giving you stomach pains and other concerns then it may be having an effect on your baby...although I'm no doctor and cannot give you specific levels of stress and the danger involved. 

I would discuss it with your doctor.

 Thank you for the input. I will call the Dr's office asap and get a professional opinion. It's good to know that my instincts are valid...

Karmalife

mrsmikey:

Absolutely.  I used to work in a very stressful environment, and me and my coworker both delivered our babies early.  Hers at 35 weeks, mine at 32.  Neither of us had any reason for delivering early.  I know those things happen for no reason all the time, but I believe stress played a part in it for both of us. 

 

Ugh. That has me so worried. Thanks for sharing...

babes12

i think more than anything the physical part of working 12+hrs on your feet could cause you more harm than stress.

I lost my dad when i was about 26/27wks along w/ my first.  i was very fearful of what the stress could do to LO but all and all he came out perfect. 

could you ask to scale down your work hours or possibly tell your ob it's getting too much and they can always give you a note to give to your work explaining its too much.

babygator15

My blood pressure was borderline high while I was working.  I really loved the people I worked with and even my bosses, but the job itself was extremely stressful for me.  I got laid off the same week i got my BFP, and my BP has been well within the normal range through the whole pregnancy. 

cherryringpop

I don't mean to scare you or anything but with dd1 I was stressed out constantly throughout my pregnancy and she ended up making an appearance at 36 weeks. I'm not saying that was all because of the stress, I know that there is no way to figure out why she came a bit early.

Hopefully you'll be able to work things out an be able to start taking it easy. I think it's so annoying when people tell you to stop stressing because it's hard on the baby. If it were that easy to control I'm sure you wouldn't be stressed to begin with.

Take care!