The Benefits of Keeping a Pregnancy Journal

Written by Jana Angeles

Journaling is something people associate as part of the past. You may have kept a diary as a child/teenager, writing about your life and the thoughts you didn’t want to share with anybody. Now, you’re pregnant but sometimes you want to collect your thoughts in writing instead of sharing it with your partner or family member. It can be difficult trying to say what you mean to people and sometimes you feel totally weird to do so. Pregnancy journals can be beneficial if you utilise them to write about your thoughts and feelings. You can even look back at them after your baby is born and reflect on your own experience. Keeping a pregnancy journal has its benefits. We take you through on how keeping one can help you throughout your pregnancy journey:

Tracking your progress

Achieving certain milestones is always an exciting time during pregnancy. When you’re going through the first, second or third trimester, during some moments of your journey, you’d feel somewhat accomplished. Even if it’s simple things like getting over morning sickness or dealing with a pregnancy mood swing, tracking your progress can be really rewarding. You can even take note of the goals you want to achieve after you have given birth, giving you more motivation to achieve what you’ve set your mind towards.

Reduces stress levels

Not only is journaling therapeutic, but it allows you to make sense of your thoughts and how you feel. As mentioned before, it’s not easy feeling different from the rest of your friends and family, but unfortunately not many people can understand the journey of pregnancy and what it entails. There will be good and bad days of pregnancy. You won’t have that “glowing” image you expected to be and your physical and mental health will totally be different to what it was before you got pregnant. At least with a pregnancy journal, you can write about how you’re feeling and vent about your frustrations.

Setting goals

During your pregnancy, you’ve probably done some things you feel guilty about like eating fast food everyday for one week or not even exercising. Having a pregnancy journal can help you set some goals, so it can motivate you to achieve them. When you set something up for yourself, you become more determined to prove to yourself that you can do it. Setting small goals like walking around the block or eating a salad are goals you can set to improve and help you throughout your pregnancy journey.

Celebrating happy moments

Have you had an ultrasound lately? Do you feel closer with your partner during the pregnancy? The benefit of having a pregnancy journal is being able to write about these happy moments and to celebrate them. This is rewarding to look back on, especially during the tough times of parenthood. Being able to reflect back on these happy moments will help you appreciate the time you had with pregnancy and to bask in the amazement of how your body managed to hold a human life. We only retain a certain number of memories in our brain so being able to document these important moments during pregnancy will help you feel grateful for the experience.

Organising yourself

It may be tempting to get some popcorn and binge-watch the latest season of your favourite TV show on Netflix but you know spending your time that way is far from productive. Having a pregnancy journal can help you be in tune with your writing skills and you’ll feel more accomplished documenting the current stage of pregnancy you’re in. When you’re pregnant and have taken some time off work, you may feel like you’ve lost structure of your usual routine and it may be tempting to just do whatever you want unplanned. Journaling helps to even structure your day and organise yourself. Using one doesn’t always have to be for your thoughts and feelings!

Keeping a pregnancy journal is encouraged for all women to consider during their pregnancy journey. While it’s not an easy experience, it can help collect your thoughts and feelings while organising yourself into a routine of writing. Surprisingly, it can be something you can do on a daily basis, which can help you feel more relaxed and at ease during pregnancy. There will be mood swings and you will have those days where you’ll pig out on bad food, but know that a pregnancy journal is more than a notebook you just vent to; it can also help you appreciate how human life is formed in your body, which can help realise your importance as a parent.