Pregnancy is one of the most life-changing, and physically and emotionally demanding challenges a woman can face in her lifetime. Research shows that the dreams of pregnant women can comment on the physical, psychological and emotional issues she has to deal with. The most common dream themes at this time concern animals and water. In the early stages of the pregnancy, these dreams may be gentle and calming, but towards the end of the pregnancy they can be traumatic or even become nightmares. Such alarming dreams are considered a normal reaction to the anxiety every woman unconsciously feels about her unborn baby and about giving birth.
It is also very common for pregnant women to dream about having the baby and these dreams are again often bizarre and disturbing; for example, dreaming about a baby that is born dead, malformed or with a monster’s head. It has been suggested that such anxiety dreams serve a purpose: they release a lot of unconscious tension and fear, allowing the mother to be more relaxed at birth.
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