Don’t worry – PBS is normal and happens to
the best of us. This part of pregnancy numbs a woman’s brains in preparation
for what’s going to happen over the next 21 years – disturbed sleep, financial
crises, sick children, school hang-ups (all over again) and everything else that comes with parenthood. And don’t expect
sympathy from your parents. They’re delighted that you’re pregnant because soon
they’ll be getting their own back. After all, grand parenting is the reward for
not killing their own in the first place!
When you have PBS, important data from your
brain gets fed to the placenta – which of course comes away after the birth –
so it’s lost forever! A bit like a computer crash. Worse, there’s no trash bin
to recover information from. And of course, the more children you have, the
more data you lose.
Women with PBS also become self-absorbed
and self-centred. They’re not interested in the news, what’s happening in their
neighbourhood or the stock market. She only thinks about herself and her next
ante-natal appointment, baby magazines, pregnancy web sites, baby-showers and
shopping-lists for baby goodies.
Apart from acknowledging that this is
happening, and learning to deal with it, there’s no treatment for PBS. It’s an
important mothering skill that teaches you the benefits of ‘quiet time’ – alone.
Doing this while you are pregnant helps you to connect emotionally and spiritually
with your baby. Withdrawing yourself from society after the birth allows you to
spend quiet, one-on-one bonding time with your baby. Mothers never quite cut
the umbilical cord. We grow and ‘become’ with our children, learning more about
ourselves while we learn about them. It’s a privilege we should never take for
granted.
Porridge brain and all, these ARE the
magical moments of motherhood! Cherish them … and learn not to fret the small
stuff.
