Twelve steps seem like lots of steps at this point in pregnancy … 12-16 weeks. Steps #1 and #2 seem like baby steps … pun intended! Since you are just starting out on this Journey you only know where you are now and less about where you are going and what will happen. Unlike Step #1 when you may not have even known you were pregnant for almost that whole time (‘limited awareness’), you know you’re pregnant now. Between 12-16 weeks you can now feel your uterus just above your pubic bone. You can only feel the very top of the ‘ball’ and it’s about the size of a tennis ball at 12 weeks. At 16 weeks you can feel the top and front of your uterus and it’s about the size of an oval head of cabbage. You still can’t feel your baby move but you’re probably not feeling as sick. The veins in your breasts are more distinct and you may or may not ‘look’ pregnant rather than fat.
Characteristics of Step #2
Pregnancy lasts about nine months. Therefore, you’d think there would be nine steps on your Journey. Seems like you’d take one step per month. In fact, there is no specific time for when you move from one step to another rather, this Journey will end with The Birth no matter the time frame you move along. Every pregnant woman takes her step #12 right after she gives birth. Therefore every woman must take the 11 other steps even if she isn’t really certain when she’s moving down the path. This is why we’re helping you understand each step.
You may not always feel in control when you move from one step to another yet you also do have some control. The balance between being in ‘control’ and feeling ‘out of control’ has always been part of your life until now even if you’ve not noticed that. During this Heroine’s Journey during pregnancy and birth this tension between control and you being overwhelmed ed, just becomes more obvious.
Especially relevant:
- You continue to be in the ‘ordinary world’
- Most of all you now hear the ‘call to adventure’
- As a result you experience ‘increased awareness’
You might have ‘controlled’ when you became pregnant … or not. You might feel ‘out of control’ because you feel terrible in your early pregnancy and that wasn’t expected. You might, however, feel very in control at this early stage and wonder why other women don’t. Since you are now committed to pregnancy, the world of pregnant women, birth and babies begins to open up. Pregnancy and birth stories abound!
You will often read stories about feeling in and out of control by other women. Often feeling out of control motivates you to the ‘call to adventure’.
A first call to adventure
If you’re pregnant for the first time you’re probably already feeling overwhelmed by all the changes going on in your body. As a result getting more information becomes a mission in itself. As much as you want to know, you aren’t certain exactly what you should be paying attention to. Due to the newness of everything you are either throwing the door of this ‘call to adventure’ wide open or taking a peek through the portal.
Call to adventure calling again
If you’ve been pregnant before, you use this journey to deepen who you are and your involvement in both pregnancy and most of all the Birth. For some of you, the ‘call to adventure’ of this step is invigorating, overwhelming or trying to be ignored.
More information, less skills
Steps #1 and #2 are just the beginning of your journey. It’s time to gather more information yet not quite time to become skilled. Birthing Better families were all pretty clear that while skills are absolutely essential, the human mind and body don’t really focus on the birth until after 24 weeks of pregnancy. Consequently now is the time to use your mind to get lots of information.
This is the time when your Individuality flourishes yet many of the common ‘problems’ in early pregnancy are directly related to our commonality. So in step #2 both your individuality and commonality are being invigorated and both parts of you are being ‘called to take this adventure’.
Birthing Better Childbirth Preparation online courses are housed in Common Knowledge Trust