Pregnant and having weird dreams?

During pregnancy, women’s dreams are tremendously rich and varied, sometimes even weird. According to French psychoanalyst Pascal Neveu, this is normal as these dreams reflect the intensity of the psychic transformations at work.

Over the nine months of pregnancy, it is somewhat uncommon for expectant mothers to enjoy peaceful nights. Dreams are particularly numerous, sometimes agitated, highly disturbing, intriguing or, on the contrary, appeasing and comforting.

“Certain dreams may be recurring at this time of life,” says psychoanalyst Pascal Neveu. “They correspond to great symbols and archetypes and serve as the reflection of both a major psychic transformation and intense psychological reflection in pregnant women. It should be understood that one always dreams of oneself, in more or less concealed guises.”

Dreaming about childbirth scenarios

Pregnant women regularly dream about childbirth and delivery. “In psychoanalytical terms, childbirth is invariably associated with the notion of renewal, evolution and maturation,” the specialist continues. “Giving birth entails abandoning a part of oneself and growing more mature. Pregnant women have to evolve, change status and become mothers. Dreams of childbirth evoke this capacity to create a new being. But accepting these changes and the birth of a new self isn’t always easy. This may translate into dreams of painful forceps delivery, even bloody childbirth. Women sometimes have dreams of miscarriages, too. Such dreams denote the fear of being unable to bring this creation project to fruition” he says.

Dreams crowded with mothers and babies

In pregnancy, the relationships between the mother-to-be and her own mother are at the core of the psychological transformation in process. “Some relationship issues may re-emerge and call for resolution. Pregnancy can also unconsciously rekindle many childhood memories from back when the future mother was herself a baby. Childhood anxieties, such as the fear of abandonment, of not being loved and so on, can resurface and give shape to dreams in which the pregnant woman’s mother plays a leading part.”

Pregnant women also have lots of dreams about babies. Symbolically, they don’t dream of the babies they carry, but of the baby they once used to be. “A pregnant woman dreams of her baby in a narcissistic way. She wishes it to realize itself as fully as she has, or even more so, hence possible anxieties and dreams of birth-defect babies. Dreaming of malformations are representations of deficiencies felt by the mother herself, and which she’s fearful of passing down to her child.”

Nightmares are normal during pregnancy

The last trimester of pregnancy seems to be the most troubled one in terms of the dreams women have. It can often be the time when they dream the most disturbing and violent dreams. “This is an expression of all the anxieties experienced in the later stages of pregnancy, when the mother-to-be knows she’s close to the term and that the sense of inseparableness between the mother and her baby will soon come to an end when she needs to let her baby take on a life of its own. This may manifest itself in bloody nightmares of dismemberment, of losing a part of oneself. Here again, there is no need to worry. Such dreams are perfectly normal and help the dreamer come to grips with her anxieties which are, after all, completely understandable.”

Sophie Malyon

Copyright © 2010 Doctissimo

Posted 05.11.2010

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