Key takeaways
- Pregnancy is a great time to strengthen your relationship with your partner.
- Open communication about feelings, tasks, responsibilities, hopes, and dreams is important.
- Listening, problem-solving, conflict management, and acceptance are key to maintaining a healthy relationship.
- It’s a good idea to start living together before your baby is born.
- If you’re having trouble with your relationship, consider seeking professional help. Strengthening Relationships During Pregnancy
- Pregnancy is a time of great change and emotion for couples.
If you invest time and energy in your relationship during pregnancy, you will be better able to support each other through these changes and emotions.
During pregnancy, you can work to strengthen your relationship as a couple by:
- Talking about your feelings, roles, responsibilities, hopes, and dreams
- Developing your interpersonal skills
- Staying together
- Seeking professional help if necessary.
Talking to Your Parents as a Friend
Openly and honestly communicating with each other is one of the best ways to strengthen your relationship during pregnancy and beyond. This will help you understand each other’s feelings, share expectations, prevent or resolve problems, and avoid disappointment.
Here are some things you and your partner can talk about.
Pregnancy Feeling
What are you feeling as a pregnant woman or partner? Are you happy, excited, sad, or what? Are you anxious or worried about pregnancy and childbirth? How do you feel about the timing of your pregnancy and its impact on your life? How do you feel about sex and relationships as a pregnant woman or couple?
Roles and Responsibilities
How much time do you spend bathing, dressing, and comforting your baby? How did you feel about returning to paid work after your child was born? How much time does each of you spend doing unpaid work such as cleaning, laundry, cooking, and paying bills? How do you balance work and life and make time for yourself as a couple and as individuals? What tasks and responsibilities do you find most enjoyable and fulfilling?
Hopes and dreams as a parent
- What kind of parent do you want to be?
- For example, how do you connect with your baby? How did your parents raise you? What do you want to be the same or different for your own children?
- What values do you want your child to learn—such as kindness, respect, acceptance, etc.?
- Are there any rituals or traditions that are important to you?
- Are there any skills or abilities that you want your child to learn?
- What people, communities, or groups do you want your child to be involved with?
Preparing for early childhood education
- What type of classes do you want to take?
- How will you prepare your home for your baby’s arrival? Who is in your support network?
- How will you manage your money?
How will you use your parental leave or flexible work arrangements? Do you want to feel better about raising children? For example, you should quit smoking during pregnancy, quit drinking alcohol during pregnancy, have a smoking partner or a drinking partner.
