When you become pregnant, one of your body's immediate responses is to turn down your immune system so your body doesn't reject the embryo.
But this natural defense mechanism can and is overridden by an activated stress response when you're in survival mode.
There are many reasons to be in survival mode during pregnancy:
✔ Having pregnancy complications
✔ Financial, societal, marital, relational stress
✔ Uncertain or untrusted prenatal care
✔ Being pregnant after infertility, loss or prematurity
✔ Unresolved grief or trauma
...etc. This is not a comprehensive list!
The shifts that happen in your nervous system when your body identifies danger, overrides the anti-inflammatory state of pregnancy, releasing inflammatory markers & hormones that increase the likelihood of preterm birth.
THIS is why I do the work I do. If, in addition to medical treatments, we can support your body to reduce the risk of preterm delivery, why wouldn't we? By restoring health to your nervous system, you can heal from your previous fertility trauma , pregnancy trauma , or birth trauma & support your body to remain in the anti-inflammatory state when/if you're pregnant again. It can also improve chronic illness that is closely tied to inflammation and trauma, such as heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and chronic pain. So even if you do not get pregnant again, you still experience significant health imporvements!
That is what you learn in Healing Hearts, my body-based group program on releasing grief and trauma from the family-building journey.
Click here to join Healing Hearts if you are not currently pregnant. If you're already pregnant, my somatic approach to pregnancy anxiety and fear through the Pregnancy Brain Course will show you how to feel safe during pregnancty after loss, pregnancy after infertility, pregnancy after preterm delivery, or during a high-risk pregnancy. By interrupting the stress response, you can support the natural anti-inflammatory state during pregnancy.
The fears and worries during pregnancy are very real. You are not broken for feeling scared of losing your baby. And, by taking charge of your health before, during and after pregnancy, you can learn how to not just endure pregnancy, but actually enjoy it, knowing you're doing everything you can to lower your risk of preterm delivery.
You deserve that.
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