The idea of pregnancy nesting has been around since the dawn of mankind. In ancient civilization, women who were about to give birth were typically left to their own resources to create, literally, ‘nests’ of straw and hay for their baby. In fact, the tradition of nesting often involved the entire extended female family members as they celebrated together the up and coming birth of a baby.
Today, the idea of nesting is when a woman, late in pregnancy, suddenly gets the urge to get up and clean and prepare the house for no reason at all. If your friend comes over to find you cleaning the cabinets, and you are in your last month of pregnancy she will probably say, “Uh-oh, you are nesting – baby is coming.”
So is pregnancy nesting real or imagined?
The answer, just like many woman will tell you is that pregnancy nesting is absolutely the real deal. One day, you may wake up with all the urges of a domestic Goddess and energy to boot. This welcome boost of energy is usually attributed to a surge of hormones that takes place in the last phase of pregnancy. It can also be a way for you to burn off some of the anxiousness and anxiety you feel about giving birth. The baby may have also dropped, making you feel a little lighter on your feet and making it easier to breathe and move around. When the urge hits to clean every nook and cranny of your house, to do some laundry or to spruce up things that have been lying dormant for months, there is nothing wrong with following the urge. Heck, all this extra exercise and scrubbing may be just the thing to get your labor started!
Of course, if you are on any type of bed rest or modified activity, you may need to clean and domesticate with care, or enlist the help of family and loved ones. You may be able to satisfy the urge by sorting through bills or coupons, scrapbooking, or addressing the envelopes for the birth announcements.
Nesting for your baby, or otherwise preparing your home, occurs in around 80% of all pregnant women, somewhere after the 36th week of pregnancy. It may last for hours, days or even a few weeks. And this is just your way of making sure that everything is perfect and prepared for when the baby comes. Some experts say that even men tend to get a nesting instinct in the late phases of their partners’ pregnancies.
If the nesting instinct doesn’t hit you, though, no worries. Just sit back and relax and realize that the baby won’t notice whether the sheets are clean, the house is vacuumed or the cabinets are cleaned out.
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Written By Stef, Mom of 4 @Momspirational
This information is not intended to replace the advice of a trained medical doctor. Health & Parenting Ltd disclaims any liability for the decisions you make based on this information, which is provided to you on a general information basis only and not as a substitute for personalized medical advice. All contents copyright © Health & Parenting Ltd 2017. All rights reserved.