HA and Pregnancy

[pigtailplaits]

Hi Everyone

I have just discovered that I am 8 weeks pregnant. I suffer from very bad health anxiety and I am frightened on the effect this will have on my unborn child. I already have a daughter but when I gave birth to her I was on top of the world-the thought of dying didnt even enter my head. Now dying and cancer is all I think about, these thoughts probably take up about 85% of my day. I am worried that the stress and anxiety I feel daily will harm the development of this baby, maybe I will miscarry, maybe I will go into premature labour or maybe I will develop pre-eclampsia. I dont think I can go a full 9mts with out completely freaking out about something. Today at work I had to stand over a scanner for 3 hrs and the whole time I was panicking thinking what is this doing to my baby. My uterus has already swollen but in my moment of irrationality I have convinced myself its ovarian cancer. I just want to know if any women have delivered healthy full term babies while suffering from this kind of anxiety and how did you deal with the 9mts of pregnancy. I breezed through my first pregnancy (2yrs ago) no symptoms or complications and a natural labour without pain relief but this time every twinge and ache sends me into full blown panic.

[cleonagh]

hello i felt excactly the same with my second pregancy he is now seven months old now i cried when i went to every scan because i thought something bad had happened i also thought i was going to get pre-eclampsia which i didnt i had very bad back pain and always got real bad cramp but i always thought the worst my mid wife always told me i had to relax but i couldnt as it goes i had a healthy baby boy without pain relief so please dont be alarmed every thing will be ok just try and relax a bit

[mandah2386]

I am in the same boat as you. I had a daughter 2 years ago with no complications, no worries every crossed my mind. I am now 18 weeks pregnant with my second and my health anxiety takes up most of my time. I worry about heart problems and blood clots. I have slowly gotten to feel a little better. I am on 50mg of Zoloft and I've been taking it now for about 6 weeks. I started taking it my 12 week of pregnancy. If you ever want someone to talk to please write me(mandah2386@yahoo.com)

[Sallysdream]

I here too. I am 11 weeks pregnant. I had some shoulder pain and bleeding. Called ambulance and had to stay in hospital as they thought it could be ectopic, after a scan we found out it wasn't and I was allowed to go. This is my 2nd too, first pregnancy was 10 years ago and no
Complications at all. But these constant headaches and sore boobs make me think the worst.
Then I think "I can't do this". If u need to chat please feel free and pm me. X

[Emaa]

Me too.
I'm 27 weeks pregnant and ALL I obsess about atm, is mouth cancer.

I'm that sure I have it, I daren't even mention it to my bf.

BUT I have been like this since before I got pregnant... And throughout my whole pregnancy and I've made it this far and NOTHING bad has happened.

My HA is worse now than it was before though, because I don't want my bf to die, then my bf get someone else and them raise my baby? <-- Sounds completely stupid I know, I'm just scared of not getting to see my baby grow up :/

[joyce1980]

Hello there, I suffer badly from ocd and health anxiety.. i see a psychiatrists now and I am 9 weeks pregnant.

I was on paroxetine and felt almost normal but I had had to change to Zoloft.. i'm not doing too bad..

Drs say you should be in the best possible mind when your pregnant cos yo need to eat and take care of yourself so pop off to the Dr and just talk about how you feel.

You can get the help to feel better, you wont damage your bub but you need to be well for the best possible outcome and YOU SHOULD FEEL WELL JUST FOR YOU TOO.

you will be ok, just seek help and make sure you are heard by the Drs cos sometimes they just don't get it.


xxxxxx

[pigtailplaits]

Thanks Everyone

My doc knows how I feel and the midwife said that she will fast track me into CBT because she knows how worried i am and how ill I feel. I heard that this kind of stress in pregnancy can lead to behavioural problems in children, learning difficulties and hyperactivity! I have already had an early scan because of some bleeding and everything looked fine but I will feel better when I hit 12 weeks. I mainly worry about brain tumors and now I get more headaches than usual and I have to remind myself that its hormones and nothing bad. I lost a friend in Dec to this illness and its really knocked me and now when I switch on the TV and its always Jade on the news it makes me really upset and scared. I am the same as you I am terrified of dying and not seeing my beautiful daughter (and child to be) grow into adults.

[panicagain]

So sorry your feeling this way First of all Congrats on your pregnancy!
I've had bad health anxiety, ocd, depression etc with both my pregnancies and they are both beautiful healthy girls, I even had panic attacks down to the moment my girls were born but they are fine and you Will BE Fine

[marfen]

We've been planning a second pregnancy which I've been putting off due to my HA. But just reading some of your stories has helped put my mind at ease a little, so thank you. My situation is likes yours Pigtailplaits. I too have a daughter and when I had her I was fine. My HA started when she was about nine months old.

I keep telling myself that if I do become pregnant then it could be the medicine that I need to curb by HA because I'll then have something else to think of. I hope so anyway.

[Stephanie]

Hello, I'm treally bad at the moment and 9 weeks pregnant. My anxiety is in the form of panic attacks. I am on Sertraline but it no longer seems to be working. I had to go to the doctor and she gave me soem sleeping pills but now I'm absolutely convinced I've either killed or damaged the baby in some way. I can not sleep even with the pills but feel I have to take them as I get myself into such a state in the evenings- trembling all over and palpitations. The more i| think about all of the damage I'm doing to my baby the more panicked I get. I can't stop reading things about the effects of drugs/anxiety/anything on the baby. The baby is so wanted and I feel like such a failure.