Trying for a baby can put pressure on the couple and affect both their mental and physical health. In this article we would like to discuss how men’s mental health is affected by this process.
How can pregnancy planning affect men’s mental health and daily life?
The man’s role in this process may seem simple and straight to the point, but unfortunately it is not that simple!
When your intimate life starts to feel like the rest of your daily chores and timed with high expectations, it can lead you to feel so stressed, anxious, depressed, angry, lost, incapable along with so many other emotions.
You may also start to feel lonely because talking about it might not feel easy or normal.
Your interest in intimacy may start to reduce and you may even want to avoid it completely!
When this happens, it is the first sign of a possible long and painful journey in the relationship where misunderstandings may start to occur.
You will start to feel that you are letting your wife/partner down while she starts to feel rejected, not loved nor supported by you during the process.
The pressure of this process will lead to overwhelming and intense emotions that can affect your daily activities, relationships with friends, family and work colleagues.
You may start to isolate yourself from the world! It can really end up becoming a very lonely and depressing journey.
You may start to lose confidence and question yourself, your abilities as a husband, as a future father and possibly as a family provider.
The stress caused by this process can affect you physically, it can possibly cause hormone imbalance and may lead to low sperm count which can be heart breaking and can make you feel not capable of making your baby planning dream come true.
We would like to assure you that it is all normal and once you realise what is really happening to you and start to take the right steps on dealing with it then everything can be rebalanced.
Now that you have more of an understanding of what is really happening to you and that it is all very normal, let’s look at the solutions and how you can help yourself and hopefully all these challenges become easier to deal with and you can start to enjoy the process instead of stressing about it.
What can I do to look after my mental health?
The good news here is that all these emotions mentioned above are completely normal! There are so many other men who have gone through it and so many others will have to face it at some point in their lives.
The key here is understanding it, accepting those feelings, acknowledging it, and doing something about it to help yourself.
There are solutions to this, and it will not last forever.
Here are some tips to help and guide you through this time:
- Stay active
- Eat well
- Be honest about your feelings
- Talk to someone you can feel you can trust especially if it is taking a while for the pregnancy to happen
- Surround yourself by supportive family and friends
- Get professional help if needed
- Find ways to relax
- Stay connected with your partner and keep up the communication
How can I maintain my relationship with my wife/partner?
It’s important for you and your partner to try to keep your intimate life enjoyable by focusing on each other and your relationship, rather than worrying about conceiving. Try to also spend time together doing other things that are important to you as a couple.
If you or your partner are feeling worried about conceiving, try to give each other time to talk about it.
If you both fail to communicate then it may help to get professional support and deal with any problems in the relationship before you get pregnant or have the baby.It is never too late to get help and support.
How can we help you?
We are here to offer you support to both your physical and mental health. Our understanding regarding this difficult process will make you feel that you are not alone, you are understood, not judged and that what you are going through is very normal and acknowledged by our practitioners.
The stress of this pregnancy process can affect your physical and mental health. Let’s discuss what actually happens and how remedial massage can help you.
Stress will cause the following:
- Hormone imbalance possibly leading to low sperm count and infertility
- Reduce your interest in intimacy
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Muscles tightness leading to physical pain
- Lack of focus
- Anxiety, depression and many more damaging symptoms
How can remedial massage help during this time?
Massage will:
- Positively affect your brain activity which will help you feel relaxed
- rebalance hormones and possibly improve your sperm production
- reduce stress hormones
- improve oxygen and blood flow
- reduce muscle tightness, headaches and body aches
- reduce anxiety and depression
- improve your energy levels
- lower your blood pressure and heart rate
We are all excited here at the Canberra Spine Centre to help you and your partner through this process. Please do not hesitate to contact us to organise a massage appointment or answer any of your questions.