Pregnancy and motherhood involve changes in the life of the woman and her partner, being a period that can cause increased levels of anxiety related to concerns about the course of pregnancy and fetal well-being. This article explains what effects anxiety can have during pregnancy and recommendations to reduce its appearance.
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is an emotional response that allows the body to become alert and activate defence mechanisms in a given situation, so it is not something negative in the first instance. Depending on the triggering stimulus, it can be accompanied by feelings of restlessness, suspicion, fear and nervousness, and its appearance is usually associated with excessive worries.
Although it encourages us to act and helps us face these situations, anxiety can become a health problem if it is disproportionate. It manifests itself constantly or for no apparent reason, causing discomfort and affecting daily activities and quality of life. In these cases, anxiety ceases to be a defensive response and can become a threat that the individual cannot control.
When anxiety becomes a health problem, we speak of anxiety disorders, defined as alterations that affect behaviour and are caused by anxiety. We differentiate between three main types, which often overlap so that people may experience more than one form:
Generalized anxiety: when anxiety symptoms appear progressively and permanently, without a real cause that provokes them.
Panic attacks: Sudden onset of intense fear.
Phobias: when the person is afraid of something that most people do not find frightening.
It is estimated that between 15 and 20% of the Spanish population suffers from an episode of anxiety each year, and between 25 and 30% suffer from it at least once throughout their lives. In general, it is twice as frequent in women as in men.
Symptoms of anxiety
Anxiety affects people in different ways, causing both emotional and physical symptoms. Among the different symptoms, we highlight:
- constant worries
- tiredness
- concentration difficulty
- irritability
- incrise of cardiac frecuency
- sweating
- muscle pain and tension
- accelerated breathing
Why does anxiety appear during pregnancy?
Anxiety is related to the appearance of worries or fears. Specifically, pregnancy is when women must face adaptive changes, with fluctuations in hormonal levels and other physiological changes. Concerns about fetal well-being also appear and fear of childbirth, among others.
Stress and anxiety are relatively common during prenatal, affecting both the mother and the newborn. It is estimated that around 15% of pregnant women present some anxiety symptoms.
The effects and consequences of anxiety disorders or prenatal stress can affect both the mother and the fetus. On the one hand, anxiety disorders can reduce the capacity for self-care in pregnant women, which in certain cases leads to inadequate nutrition, with consequences for the fetus. On the other hand, at a physiological level, high levels of stress or anxiety can increase the production of cortisol in the body. This increase in cortisol can hurt both the mother and the fetus.
Among the different complications associated with anxiety during pregnancy, we highlight:
- intrauterine growth restriction
- preterm labour
- low birth weight
- risk factor for developing postpartum depression
In addition, some studies evaluate how high levels of stress and anxiety can continuously harm the child's psychological development compared to children born to mothers who have not experienced stress or anxiety during pregnancy. It has been observed that in these cases, children are more likely to develop disorders such as attention deficit and hyperactivity.
We should not confuse worry with anxiety
During pregnancy, the woman undergoes numerous tests that control the correct evolution of the pregnancy. Although no one questions the clinical usefulness of these tests, it is perfectly normal that before, during and until the delivery of the results of the different tests, pregnant women and their partners deal with concerns that can often be confused or overlap with episodes of anxiety that are within normal range.
One of the most important pregnancy tests is the first-trimester screening in which the risk of the baby presenting common chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome is evaluated. When the mother is faced with a high-risk result on these tests, an invasive procedure is usually recommended for confirmation. Until a definitive result is obtained, it can cause increased maternal anxiety. Today we have other tests that improve the performance of screening in the first trimester, such as non-invasive prenatal tests, which reduce the number of unnecessary invasive procedures, alleviating these specific episodes of anxiety in many cases.
Managing anxiety during pregnancy
More and more protocols include psychological screening within the periodic check-ups of pregnant women to carry out an early approach in these cases.
Within the different strategies used for the prevention or remission of anxiety in pregnant women, we distinguish:
- cognitive-behavioural restructuring therapies
- group support and educational sessions
- meditation workshops
The essential thing is always to go to the specialist, who will be able to make a correct diagnosis and adapt the management in each case and will be the one who establishes if in certain cases it is necessary to resort to pharmacological treatment for pregnant women diagnosed with anxiety and depression.