Advice

When you're pregnant, everyone has advice to give you. Every other woman who has ever birthed a baby has something to say, but I'm not here to rant about how annoying this is, just to say this: So far, pregnancy to me seems to be a very personal experience and something that no one else can relate to without resorting to cliche. Of course there are the obvious similarities between pregnancies - tiredness, swelling, the increased urge to urinate - but other than these physical manifestations, I think the emotional experience of pregnancy is different for everyone.

Saying that, if (and probably when) I become the been-there-done-that mother at the other end of the journey, I already know what my advice will be: Don't read too much, especially early on.

I figured this out in the first trimester when I was madly googling statistics and freaking out unnecessarily about miscarriage, to the point where any little twinge would send me hyperventilating. I knew this meant I wanted the baby badly, so that was a good thing, but it was also totally unnecessary. One in five babies miscarry! Arggh! I imagined a room with four other pregnant women in it, and me looking around and thinking, one of us has got to go. A horrible thought! There is no need to know these statistics. There is no need to know about what can go wrong, unless it does, in which case it is definitely sensible to find out why and how it happened.

But when things are going well, I would say don't read too much. Just think positive thoughts and let them emanate into your womb. Don't be afraid to imagine the baby early on. Don't be afraid to be happy.