{"id":30944,"date":"2023-11-20T15:00:47","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T23:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=30944"},"modified":"2023-11-30T11:56:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T19:56:04","slug":"navigating-pregnancy-a-river-runners-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2023\/11\/20\/navigating-pregnancy-a-river-runners-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"Navigating Pregnancy: A River Runner’s Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

“You still don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to have this baby, do you?” my friend asked me over pizza last summer. I was approaching the end of the first trimester of my pregnancy but was still grieving a recent miscarriage and waiting on the results of a worrisome test. I hesitated.<\/p>\n

“You know what this reminds me of?” she said, taking a sip of her ros\u00e9. “When you scout a rapid for too long. The longer you stand there, the scarier it seems. You are going to have this baby, and it\u2019s time to get going.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was right. To begin any adventure, you first have to commit. As I embarked on a very different type of downstream journey, the river, as it has for many years, guided me. Here are some of the lessons I learned.<\/p>\n

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Stay Positive
\n<\/strong>I was a very anxious pregnant person and I drove myself crazy reading about and envisioning every horrible scenario possible. I convinced myself that going in a hot tub before I knew I was pregnant had damaged the baby irrevocably. Before our 20-week ultrasound, all I could think about was finding out our baby didn\u2019t have kidneys or lungs. With every cramp or twinge, I was sure the whole thing was about to end in disaster.<\/p>\n

We all want beta before doing anything for the first time. It\u2019s natural to want to ask other people for advice or head down an internet rabbit hole, but scary stories are a dime a dozen. People love to talk about nasty flips, swims, or their cousin who vomited for six straight months and then had a cesarean birth after being in labor for 72 hours.<\/p>\n

Really try to limit your exposure to this type of information. My pregnancy would have been much happier if I had.<\/p>\n