Boosting Partner Involvement With Your Pregnancy
A lot of times, your partner will feel left out when it comes to your pregnancy. Some of this makes sense, because you are the one having the radical changes take over your body. However, you may want your partner to be more involved, or your partner may desire greater involvement as well. Check out this article to read some tips about boosting your partner's presence in your pregnancy.
It may not work with one of your work schedules, but if you can have your partner come to as many of your doctor visits as possible, that would be ideal. This way, you both know what is going on, with information coming straight from your physician. Also, your partner becomes more aware of the significant shifts that are taking place within your body. This will improve your own interpersonal communication and will give you someone to share the joys and concerns from each appointment with.
Pregnancy is an emotional time for both of you. You will both experience a number of different feelings during this time, and it is important to talk about them from time to time. You may be excited but also overwhelmed about the coming life changes. You need to know how your partner feels and your partner should also know about the building happiness and stress in your life. This will bring the two of you closer together as a couple.
Even though the two of you are partners, you likely came from homes with very different parenting styles. This means that you will likely approach child raising in two different ways. The time to resolve this is not when you are arguing in front of your three-year-old. Instead, the time to bridge as many of these gaps as possible is before your baby is born. This way, you will present more of a unified front when things come up during your baby's childhood. You will make a better role model for your child, and you will have a stronger relationship.
Your partner may wonder what it is like going through pregnancy, because the changes that you are experiencing are beyond what he (or even she) can imagine. Take the time to sit down and talk about these changes, and be candid. You're going to need a lot of help, particularly as you enter the later periods of pregnancy, and you want your partner prepared.
When possible, sit down and do as much of your planning together as possible. What do you want the nursery to look like? What do you want to register for? Do you want to use disposable or cloth diapers? Do you want the baby to sleep in your room for three months? Six months? These decisions are important, and you need to make them together.
You won't be able to get your partner as involved in your pregnancy as you are, but these tips will go a long way toward increasing your partner's involvement and making the two of you a team.
