Emotions during pregnancy could surprise you every day. Probably, loving the baby bump, enjoying the pregnancy phase was all you could be anticipating when you are pregnant, as no one exposed you to the other side of pregnancy — uncontrollable anger during pregnancy. Many moms experience or go through this phase where they get angry and stressed at small things.
You could be like many of those pregnant women who keep crying and shouting during pregnancy or finding out the causes of uncontrollable anger during pregnancy — just because you feel irritated and angry all the time. Being pregnant and irritated with everyone is all a part of the pregnancy’s emotions. This is because of the fluctuating hormones. Just like how few women experience irritability before their monthly cycle, feeling frustrated and irritated is common during pregnancy.
If you want to avoid spending the pregnancy months with anger, read more about the causes of uncontrollable anger during pregnancy and why they happen — the reason behind the uncontrollable anger during pregnancy.
Causes Of Uncontrollable Anger During Pregnancy
When you are pregnant, the chances you get stressed, fearful, and anxious are high. These factors are the main reason for a person to get angry. Anger can also be due to bodily changes and mixed emotions that are caused due to hormones.
Pregnancy is a roller coaster of emotions; we recommend a few tried & tested ways to control emotions during pregnancy. Since anger is a common emotion, there is nothing wrong with it. However, uncontrollable anger during pregnancy — if it becomes a regular issue, needs attention. It takes a lot of self-awareness and self-control to bring it under control.
Before knowing how to control or deal with anger, let us understand the causes of uncontrollable anger during pregnancy.
1. Hormonal changes
Hormonal shifts during pregnancy make women susceptible to uncontrollable anger during pregnancy. They trigger emotions that make you sensitive. Adding to this, it piles up the intensity over small things and creates an outburst in every situation.
Try to identify those triggers which make you sensitive. Find out ways that could bring you happiness. If a situation is making you unhappy, try moving out of it to find peace to avoid unpleasant feelings.
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2. Discomfort
Discomforts are a common affair during pregnancy. Feelings such as nausea, fatigue, morning sickness, backache, muscle cramps are a few examples that could make pregnant women irritated. They tend to make your mood worse.
Make sure to take preventive measures to deal with these feelings. For instance, arranging a comfortable bed for proper sleep or eating bland foods to avoid nausea. You can also opt for a spa or massage for a physical retreat.
Related Reading: 12 Simple Ways to Prevent Pregnancy Nausea
3. Fear
Anger is often one of the ways to cover fear. Pregnant women face a lot of fear such as fear of labor, birth defects, parenting a child, etc. According to a source, angry women also had high levels of anxiety and depression.
9 Ways To Cope With Uncontrollable Anger During Pregnancy
Expectant moms go through a lot of emotions. They experience anxiety, happiness and even show pregnancy anger at husbands. We know that this feeling of mixed emotions could be overwhelming and all we have to look into is processing these anger management issues.
Hormones are the most common reason for uncontrollable anger during pregnancy. The fluctuations in hormones begin right from the first trimester as the body keeps adapting to the little human growing inside you. This leads to mixed emotions, anger, and frequent mood swings. Many women also feel that their husband doesn’t understand pregnancy mood swings and keep stressing and worrying more.
While life-changing events such as pregnancy could be truly exciting, the transit could also stress many moms where their pregnancy rage is real. Let us see the ways of dealing better.
1. Stay calm and relaxed
Staying calm and relaxed is an easy way to cope with uncontrollable anger during pregnancy. Though this might sound impossible, simple techniques like deep breathing could work. These are also a part of the childbirth education classes. Below are a few techniques for you.
- Breathe slowly from deep inside of your body. Make sure the breath is taken from the diaphragm
- Keep telling yourself to stay calm and stay relaxed with every breath
- Meditate for a few minutes every day which helps to keep your mind relaxed
- Enroll yourself in pregnancy yoga classes and spend “me time”
2. Do activities that make you happy
It is beneficial for pregnant women to stay active and indulge in activities that make them happy. You can do whatever you feel will make you happy. It could be anything from talking to a friend, going shopping, or painting. If watching movies is your thing, then we recommend these best movies to watch during pregnancy. These activities would help you divert yourself from stress and use your energy productively and entertainingly.
3. Healthy diet to deal with uncontrollable anger during pregnancy
A healthy and balanced diet during pregnancy is important to keep your mood stable and to maintain your energy levels. The diet followed by you partially helps to control anger. Though there is no diet specially designed for anger management, all you need to do is to make small modifications wherein your diet includes:
- Fruits and vegetables
- Natural fruit over its juice form like apple over apple juice
- Foods’s rich in vitamin D that improves sleep quality
4. Prioritize sleep to deal with uncontrollable anger during pregnancy
Sleep deprivation during pregnancy leads to fatigue — which is one major reason for severe mood swings. Try to prioritize sleep and take quick naps as and when possible. During the first trimester, you will stay tired despite sleeping well. Reasons such as morning sickness, nausea could keep you fatigued.
During the third trimester, you will find it hard to sleep due to the feeling of uneasiness and the growing baby bump. If you are at work, try taking a small nap at your desk. If you are at home, make sure to sleep peacefully during some part of the day so you don’t feel exhausted and get angry.
5. Vent out feelings
Emotional imbalance is common during pregnancy. It could be anything like excitement to welcome the little one to the world or some annoyance over something. Piling up these feelings could only lead to irritability.
Find out ways or methods through which you can vent your feelings. This could be anything like sharing what you feel and what you undergo to a person you like or trust. Or you could also write them in your diary. The idea is to let you vent out what you feel.
6. Get rid of conflict and stress
It is easy to get irritated and get into stress even with small issues during the pregnancy phase. In such a scenario it is better to walk away or ignore conversations or atmosphere which could irritate you or could make you stressed.
Give yourself some time to calm down and react to the issue or situation. You could also sip water to keep yourself cool. If the situation worsens, excuse yourself for a moment and take a walk or indulge in something you like.
Related Reading: 13 Tips To Enjoy Your Pregnancy And Feel Happy
7. Know what your anger triggers are
Everyone gets triggered by someone or something. Uncontrollable anger during pregnancy could be controlled by identifying what your anger triggers are. Anger triggers could be different for different persons. It could be personal or topic-based. Some may get triggered when body shaming happens or when there is gossip or rumor or a false acquisition happening.
If there is anything that is bothering or triggering you, remember the mantra “move away”.
8. Analyze your assumptions and perceptions
Many times, we become angry because we assume something to be true which in reality might not be. Analyze your thoughts and see if what you assume and if your perception of something is right.
Wrong assumptions could be a pitfall especially if you are mentally stressed. You might be looking for unwanted troubles when the situation could be much simpler.
9. Seek professional help
If you can get angry and cool down after a certain time, you might not need professional help. If your anger is affecting your well-being or your relationship with the rest, it is time you seek professional help. It is also okay to go for online counseling or chats where you relax and seek consolation — even if you aren’t angry.
Related Reading: 8 Tips To Cope With Anxiety During Pregnancy Third Trimester
Can Being Angry Affect My Unborn Baby?
Anger and anxiety during pregnancy trigger stress hormones which can affect the baby’s temperament and neurobehavioral development. It is normal to occasionally feel frustrated or get angry. While hormone changes are the main reasons for irritability and uncontrollable anger during pregnancy, there are many chances it could affect your baby to be born.
According to a source, a few unborn children were more active and had a slow growth rate — whose mothers were angry during pregnancy. Also, it was seen that the babies had more disrupted sleep after they were born.
Another study revealed signs of irritability and depression in mothers who underwent a lot of stress during the first trimester. Also, the chances of a hyperactive child were much higher when the pregnant women underwent severe anxiety in pregnancy.