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Dreaming of Being a Good Mom

Pregnancy and Dream Interpretation

By Laura Cone

When Brandy Canada, 29, of New Tampa, Fla., was pregnant, she would have vivid dreams in color about being chased by an alligator. Dream experts say your nightmares during pregnancy may frighten you, but there is actually a reason for them: to prepare you for the new responsibility of being a mom. Canada, who also has two older sons, Nicholas, 6, and Jason, 9, went into labor at 28 weeks.

"My dreams, especially in the beginning of my pregnancy, would be crazy things, [like] being chased by an alligator and people being in accidents," Canada says. "I would always relate it to the fear of having a new life and the whole uncertainty about whether your baby is healthy or not."

Canada had her baby six weeks early after spending more than a month in the hospital.

Siegel says it's not uncommon for women who are pregnant to dream about car accidents, which symbolize a loss of control. "When you are pregnant, some of these things are not in your control," he says. "Car accidents often symbolize a loss of emotional control, which is an aspect of pregnancy."

Some women have a dream in which they leave the baby at home alone or forget they have a child. Siegel says the dream does not mean women will abandon their children. "A common dream is when you are taking care of the baby and suddenly you go off and do something fun and you forget about the baby," he says. "That is a great dream. People tend to take dreams concretely so they wake up and say, 'Oh I'm going to be a terrible mother. I can't even take care of my baby in my dream.' It's the exact opposite. It's preparing you by rehearsing worst-case scenarios."

He says dreams teach you how to prepare to be a parent. Although nightmares are unpleasant, Siegel says to think of them as a vaccine, not a poison. "You have to be responsible and take care of a helpless person 24 hours a day," Siegel says. "This might seem like a painful way to learn, but it's the way the mind is developed."

While hormones during pregnancy tend to enrich a woman's dream life, Siegel says women dream more during pregnancy because it's a major life event similar to getting married, losing a loved one or getting divorced. "Every major stress and life event causes more vivid dreams, and also there are certain dream patterns associated with different life events," he says.

Want to see more?

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