Pregnancy monitoring: does it stress or calm you? 2026

Does every visit we make to the gynecologist stress us out" target="_self? Do we leave each ultrasound more anxious than we entered? Do we spend the day looking for openings or asking for permission to go to pregnancy-related tests?

Pregnancy monitoring should be a source of peace of mind, however on too many occasions they become a source of stress. It may be due to the very nature of the tests, because we abuse them and they begin to govern our agenda or because they present us with uncertain information, which we do not know how to interpret. What happens when, instead of offering us peace of mind, they become the source of our stress? And what can we do?

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Excessive control causes anxiety

The desire for control during pregnancy leads us to want to measure and weigh everything. We associate control with security, but this is not always the case and the terms can even be reversed: excess control poses its own complications. Some control measures that cause us stress are:

In our country, the consultation with the midwife or gynecologist inevitably begins by weighing the pregnant woman. It is something that is not done, for example, in the United Kingdom. It is usually a source of stress for many women, who go to the appointment fearing a reprimand based on the parameters of whoever weighs them. Or they spend the week obsessed with not gaining weight. "Some professionals consider that you should not gain more than 9 kilos, others think 12, but bodies are not the same and there are women for whom it is natural to gain 20 kilos during pregnancy, kilos that they lose as soon as the baby is born," explains perinatal psychologist Diana Sánchez. In Spain, remember, there are hospitals where they no longer weigh the pregnant woman, such as the Infanta Leonor. Because, ultimately, does a woman who is heavy gain less weight every week or every month? No. Rather, it can happen the other way around if it becomes a source of obsession or anxiety. "There is scientific evidence that weighing a pregnant woman does not protect the health of the mother or the baby," concludes Diana Sánchez.

In many countries, certain tests, such as being weighed or measuring sugar levels with the O'Sullivan test, are never systematically performed on all women but only when there is a medical reason.

What can we do?"Remember that you are free to refuse those tests that you do not want. In this case, the health personnel who care for you will offer you alternatives, if any," specifies the Health Department of the Principality of Asturias in its Maternal Health Card. "No one can force us to take a test that we don't want," confirms psychologist Diana Sánchez. In this case the responsibility is ours. If we consider a test unnecessary and causes us excessive stress, we can reject it.

It wasn't that long ago that the woman confirmed her pregnancy almost by chance. Now we can know from the first day of the first absence thanks to the pharmacy's reliable tests. But it is becoming customary to look for an ultrasound to confirm it. Gynecologist Emilio Santos Leal remembers in his article Pregnancy, tests and care of the first trimester that doing an ultrasound before 12 weeks (recommended) can have two negative effects. One is the stress derived from sometimes not being able to confirm the baby's heartbeat; The ultrasound was done too soon and we will have to wait and repeat it in days or weeks, something that transforms the woman's joy into anxiety until the next appointment. On the other hand, this specialist points out, it has not been possible to demonstrate the total safety of ultrasound for the fetus: "For a few years there have been indications in experimental animals that ultrasound could interfere (...) in the neuronal migration of cells," he states in his article.

What can we do? Unless indicated for some reason, it is better to leave the first ultrasound for the end of the first trimester, we will save worry. Pregnancy is a period in which we learn, among other things, to relax our rhythm and tolerate a certain level of uncertainty, something that will be very useful when the baby arrives. It is interesting to stop focusing attention on the tests and place it on our sensations and emotions.

It turns out that pregnancy can become, if we want, the time with the most medical visits in our history. And most of the time, because we decide so: we feel safer doubling the tests ("I go for the public and the private") or performing "extra" tests and that can lead us to run from one place to another continuously. Private insurance, in addition, usually performs significantly more tests than public health. Are we really safer this way? As we have seen, the opposite can even happen, that more tests imply a greater risk. Ultrasound should be used when necessary. In isolation, its safety seems to be proven, but there is controversy about the effects that repeated exposure to ultrasound may have on the future baby. The same thing happens, for example, with vaginal examinations during pregnancy. Tests, the right ones.

The World Health Organization, for example, recommends reducing the use of ultrasounds to those with medical indications or one during pregnancy, as recalled on the El Parto es Nuestro website. In Spanish public health, two or three ultrasounds are recommended, at most one per quarter, unless there are causes that indicate other measures.

What we can do: If we are tired of running from appointment to appointment, we can consider performing the right tests and ultrasounds, those recommended by professional societies for medical purposes, which are not that many. It will be a liberation. And a way to take care of our health.

In general, knowing is better than not knowing. But it all depends on what arrives and how it arrives.

On the one hand, pregnancy is a stage in which there are things that are better not to hear. Gloria attests to this, when she went to have the 20-week ultrasound, she had to sign a two-page document that specified dozens of diseases that the test did NOT rule out. "When I realized what it was, I tried to sign the sheet without reading it, but they told me that it was mandatory for me to read it... and carefully!" says this mother who entered the ultrasound defeated and spent weeks with nightmares about what she had read on the paper. "The brain does not understand percentages and it is enough to hear the name of a disease, even if it represents a chance in a million, to worry," says Diana Sánchez. So there are things that a pregnant woman has the right not to hear or read.

On the other hand, the way in which certain information reaches us is very important, and that the information is complete and not partial.

Bloggeralectoraprofeymadre tells it very well, who when she went for the 20 week ultrasound she had to hear, as if nothing were happening, that they would be called for another ultrasound. "The baby has some cysts in the choroid plexus, in the brain, and an empty stomach, and we have to observe him again," they were told. "It left us paralyzed," says this future mother. And the worst thing is that none of their subsequent questions (what those cysts meant, if they were a warning sign, if something could be wrong, if they should be worried, when they would have that ultrasound) were answered. After an afternoon of stressful searching, consultations and tears, he came to the conclusion that none of the information offered had to be a sign of a problem, and that everything could be part of the normal evolution of a fetus of that time. "Now we are calm, but we feel badly treated, our rights violated. (...) The least that a person who is being explored deserves is information, always, but especially if they demand it," he concludes. You can read her entire story at https://lectoraprofeymama.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/no-hay-derecho/

Finally, there are situations in which being well informed is part of our right, and we must demand it especially when faced with tests that involve risks, such as amniocentesis.

What to do? It is essential to be able to count on a trusted professional, not an alarmist, who offers us reliable information. In the "Pregnancy care guide, normal childbirth, and breastfeeding" of the Ministry of Asturias, an organization that has opted to reduce unnecessary control of pregnancy, it is specified on its first page: "You should know that all health personnel must be aware of the importance of this special moment, extreme kindness and respect...".

Let's take action!

In summary: regarding tests, we already know that we can drastically reduce them to just the right ones, since we will not be safer by practicing more. We also know that we have the right to seek professionals who accompany us with respect and without alarmism. And if the cause of stress is our own attitude towards any circumstance, if we go to each test like someone going to an exam, "it is time to start nurturing confidence in our body," reminds psychologist Diana Sánchez. It cannot be repeated enough that a woman is prepared to gestate, give birth and breastfeed, it is a natural process.

Advisor:Diana Sánchez, psychologist, president of the Spanish Association of Perinatal Psychology.www.dianasanchezsanchez.com