The effect of pregnancy on the emotions of a woman are very varied. Some women’s emotions alter hardly at all, other women become increasingly placid and less reactive to stress; still other women react excessively to upsets which would hardly affect them at all when they were not pregnant.
In the early weeks of pregnancy, most women identify with the tiny foetus; they talk about ‘my’ pregnancy rather than ‘the’ pregnancy or ‘it’. This is because the foetus is perceived as part of the woman’s body and has no separate identity. Between the 15th and 20th weeks of pregnancy a change occurs. The foetus begins to move, and to develop an identity of its own. The woman’s enlarging abdomen tells her (and her friends) that she really is pregnant and she now begins to be interested in the foetus as ‘her baby’. In late pregnancy from about the 35th week a further change occurs. Now most women become impatient with the pregnancy, bored with their swollen abdomen, anxious to give birth and to see, touch, and care for the newborn baby.
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