Early in pregnancy, first-time moms may not know much about the childbirth experience, and they often feel apprehensive. The combination of hopes for an easy delivery and an incomplete understanding of the actual process can lead to dreams of the baby "popping out" or simply appearing.
A woman's feelings about her body may either improve or deteriorate during pregnancy. In this dream, the "spare tire" represents an expanding midsection. Driving a vehicle is often a metaphor for the way the dreamer is moving through life at the moment.
Pregnant women frequently picture themselves driving trucks, buses, or other vehicles that are more difficult to maneuver than cars in their dreams, reflecting their perception of awkward movement.
Researchers who have studied pregnant women's dreams note frequent references to buildings, from simple rooms to soaring skyscrapers. The dream buildings are often places where things are made, such as a factory or a shipyard, probably paralleling the "making" of a baby that is taking place inside the woman's body.
From goldfish bowls to swelling oceans, a pregnant woman's dreams often feature water. A mother-to-be will often find herself swimming in her dreams. When animals appear in dreams, they may be aquatic creatures, such as tadpoles and fish. This water in her dreams possibly depicts an awareness of the water gathering in her womb. Water in dreams may take on a dramatic form as pregnancy progresses.
Toward her due date, a pregnant woman is more likely to dream of water as a symbol of the "breaking waters" that announce imminent childbirth. One woman at the end of her second trimester dreamed of big ocean waves that rose around her. Near me on a chair is a pet of hers, a monkey. I keep my distance from him, afraid he might bite. He climbs around on the furniture and nibbles on some squash in a hanging basket.
Many pregnant women's dreams feature animals that are baby-like, such as pups, chicks, and kittens. Depending on her attitude toward the pregnancy, her partner, and her situation, the animal may be either threatening or lovable. The dream above suggests this mom-to-be felt some ambivalence about the effect of the strange new creature coming into her life.
Would its presence be destructive? The presence of friendly animals — rare and charming creatures in dreams — is generally thought to represent a good relationship between the dreamer and his or her instincts. In the dreams of many pregnant women, animals are frequently cuddly and cute.
I put one bag inside the other and offer this to him. He takes the doubled-up bag and I feel happy. Sometimes, an expectant mother may have nightmares that her partner is having an affair. Or she may picture other people propositioning her loved one.
Such dreams express a sense of insecurity about holding the partner's love and attention through a time of great change. For most women, happily, the insecurity is unfounded and passes. Many women actually find that going through the experience of preparing for a baby's arrival and giving birth bonds her and her partner in a deep way. I can see the back of my child skipping before me happily. I can't tell from the back whether it's a boy or a girl. Sometimes a pregnant mother's dreams about the sex of her child are vague.
Other times, mothers feel quite certain of their child's sex based on their dreams. One researcher tried to verify how frequently pregnant women correctly sensed the sex of their unborn child by asking her subjects about predictive dreams.
She found that 50 percent of the expectant mothers whose dreams she investigated had accurately dreamed of the baby's sex. I can see our baby girl, and she looks just like us. She has my eyes, all dark and sparkly, and my husband's cute little bow mouth. She's a mixture of us in miniature.
Dreams offer the chance to imagine your child. Studies show that pregnant women see their babies in about 15 percent of their dreams. Other researchers have reported an even greater number of baby dreams during the third trimester. I'm pregnant but not so much as I am now. I have a bad feeling, like I don't really want to go. This happens to be a long-standing trend in pregnancy dreams -- at the very least, it dates back to , when Sigmund Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams and described a woman who dreamed of giving birth to a seal.
Women might even dream about being trapped or submerged in water, which Siegel said is a way for the expectant mom to identify with her baby, who's "trapped" in the womb. That changes your life. So as much as there may be joy, maybe the person feels trapped.
The anxiety of pregnancy can make women imagine the worst case scenario: accidentally leaving her baby unattended. That's a normal fear, Siegel said, and could be a result of the increased responsibility that comes with parenthood. Dreaming something like, "I was changing my child in a changing room at the mall and then I left. Ten minutes later, I realized that I had forgotten my child in the changing room," might just be the psyche's way of conveying that a woman doesn't feel prepared for a baby psychologically.
It may be more at the level of emotions that you feel. Do you feel competent? Are you too concerned about being a good caregiver? Anyone going through a period of uncertainty, fear or change can have nightmares, but unpleasant or scary dreams take a unique form during pregnancy , according to Nielsen and Siegel. Women often dream about having their lives or the lives of their baby endangered in extreme circumstances.
Many times, after expectant moms wake up in a panic, they can pin down specific worries, like Will I be a good caregiver? Then they can adapt their behavior accordingly -- see a doctor or take prenatal vitamins -- and feel better prepared. One study found that nightmares like these may just predict shorter labors with fewer complications. In , a study even found that dreams with masochistic themes are correlated with a decreased chance of developing postpartum depression.
While it may seem counterintuitive, scary dreams can make anxiety more easy to manage. Preparing for a baby takes a lot of your time and energy.
And as excited as you are, you may also be a little apprehensive. Dreams can provide insight into some of your biggest worries and anxieties. This could be anxieties about finances, juggling a newborn and other children, and continuing to work with a newborn.
You might even have anxiety about labor and delivery. During pregnancy, it might be easier for you to recall some of your dreams. Before pregnancy, perhaps you had difficulty remembering your dreams in the morning. This could be fear or anxiety about labor and delivery, or something happening to the baby. These nightmares can take different forms.
You might dream of dropping your baby or literally losing your baby. Dreams about being lost or trapped are also common during pregnancy. Dream changes during pregnancy have many possible explanations.
And as you likely suspect, hormonal changes are a big factor. Fluctuating hormones during pregnancy can have a tremendous impact on your body. And in the same way hormones can make your emotions more intense, they can make dreams more intense.
Some theories suggest that dreaming is how you store memories. And in a lot of ways, dreams act as therapy, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Dreams can help you process information and better understand your emotions.
One of the best ways to deal with unpleasant dreams, and hopefully reduce the frequency of these types of dreams, is to talk through them. You can do this with your doctor or a friend, or you can journal your dreams. Being honest and open about some of your biggest fears can put anxiety into perspective. When you discuss your feelings with others, they can help you see that your concerns are normal, and in most cases, you have nothing to worry about.
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