Pregnancy Dreams And What They Really Mean
During pregnancy, it’s common to have vivid, strange dreams and
frightening nightmares that wake you up in a cold sweat. Although
pregnant women don’t have more dreams than those who are not, they do
report more nightmares, according to a study in the journal Sleep
Medicine. Since hormonal changes interrupt sleep, dreams can be more
disturbing and also more memorable because of the frequent awakenings.
Due to all the changes and stress
women experience during pregnancy, the dream content itself also tends
to be more strange. Dreams are more
impactful maybe because women are more aware of the changes and stress
about future. The good news is that dreams aren’t premonitions and
pregnant women who have nightmares may actually have shorter laboUrs,
according to a study in the journal Psychiatry Research. Here, read on
for nine of the most common strange pregnancy dreams and what they
actually mean.
1. Water
Dreams don’t just happen to us, we actually create them. “The dream is
like the ultimate selfie,” said Ian Wallace, a psychologist in
Edinburgh, Scotland, and author of “The Top 100 Dreams: The Dreams That
We All Have and What They Really Mean,” and “The Complete A to Z
Dictionary of Dreams: Be Your Own Dream Expert.” “It’s the ultimate self
portrait of who you are, what you need and what you believe in that
point in your life,” he said. Dreaming about water is particularly
common during the first trimester as the amniotic sac fills up with
fluid. “Anytime we create a dream with fluid, with water in it, it’s
usually about our emotions and feelings,” he said. If the water is dirty
or murky, it probably means that you’re not sure how you feel about
having a baby. Similarly, a dream about a tidal wave or tsunami that
hovers off-shore means there’s an emotional change coming up in your
life.
2. Nature and taking pictures
When mother-of-two Erin Kühn, 32, of Ontario, Canada, was pregnant with
her second child, she had a dream that she was taking photos in nature
while her daughter played with a stick in a puddle of water nearby. “All
of a sudden I turned around and she was lying face down in the puddle.
She had drowned. I remember feeling so horrible,” Kühn said. Dreaming
about death isn’t a premonition, but the child represents ideas that you
hold dear, such as a goal you didn’t achieve, but need to figure out how
to handle. “There is some situation, something very close to their heart
that seems to be in danger in some way,” Wallace said. Taking photos
represents that you’re trying to get the most natural and healthy
perspective on what you’re trying to achieve. “She was worrying that her
unique insight would become submerged and she wouldn’t be able to access
it again,” he said.
3. Conception
If you have a dream about conceiving your baby, it actually represents
creativity and means you’re conceiving ideas from a labor of love. “You
want to nurture and develop that seed of the idea into something
wonderful and unique,” Wallace said.
4. Taking a trip
Dreaming about going on a trip is about the lifelong journey you’re
about to start. If you walk, it means that you’ll take your pregnancy
step by step, whereas if you run, it means you already know how to be a
mom. Driving in a car means you have personal or profession ambitions
and flying in an airplane means you have ideas about how you’ll raise
your child.
5. The sex of the baby
If you dream about the gender of your baby, don’t give it too much
credit. Since males are usually associated with attributes such as
assertiveness, ambition and focus and females are associated with
empathy, emotions, intuition and creativity, it simply means there’s an
opportunity in your life to develop and use that sense of your self.
6. Labor and giving birth
If you dream about going into labor and giving birth, it probably
doesn’t mean you’re worrying about it. Rather, it means that you’re
bringing a skill, talent or professional project into fruition. “It
usually suggests that [the mother] is using her own experience of the
physical birth as a way of symbolizing something in her awakened life
that is also quite a lot of work,” Wallace said.
7. Small animals and insects
It’s common for women to dream about giving birth to a small animal,
like a puppy. This dream means there is the potential to provide
unconditional love and affection and to receive it from your baby. Dream
about giving birth to a kitten? “There’s a feeling that she is going to
be a quite relaxed and independent mother,” Wallace said. Dreams about
spiders means there’s an emotional entanglement of some sort, perhaps
from an overbearing mother-in-law who is already getting too involved.
8. Forgetting the baby
If you dream that you have forgotten your baby somewhere, it means that
you’re thinking about what you may have to give up after your baby is
born, whether it’s your career or that painting class you’ve been
taking.
9. Physical harm to baby
Dreaming about physical harm to your baby or of the baby being born
unhealthy can be scary but it’s actually about your internal conflict
about the amount of time you’ll have to devote to your baby. “[The
mother] needs to get really, really clear about her priorities and how
to balance those,” Wallace said.
