10 Tips to Mentally Prepare for Motherhood
Pregnancy Podcast
Vanessa Merten
4.5 • 970 Ratings
🗓️ 10 May 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There is so much focus during pregnancy on the physical side and on getting ready for your baby's arrival. Your body is changing, you are preparing for birth, and there is a long list of things to learn about feeding, sleep, and caring for a newborn. All of that matters. What gets less attention is the mental and emotional shift that comes with becoming a mother. This episode walks through ten ways to mentally prepare for motherhood. Hear what the research tells us about how your brain adapts during pregnancy and why bonding does not always happen at first sight. Learn what to expect for your relationship with your partner and how to navigate the harder emotions that come with becoming a mom. Whether this is your first baby or you are growing your family, mentally preparing for motherhood is one of the most valuable things you can do before your baby arrives.
Full article and resources for this episode: https://pregnancypodcast.com/motherhood/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You are listening to the pregnancy podcast with Vanessa Martin. |
| 0:10.7 | Hello, thank you for tuning into the pregnancy podcast. Today we're talking about how to mentally |
| 0:18.7 | prepare for motherhood. Today is Mother's Day in the United States, |
| 0:24.2 | and I'd like to wish you a very happy Mother's Day. Becoming a mom is a really profound, |
| 0:31.2 | mental and emotional transition, and that side of motherhood does not get nearly enough attention. |
| 0:37.9 | So today felt like the perfect day to talk about it. |
| 0:41.8 | There's so much focus during pregnancy on the physical side. |
| 0:45.6 | You're getting ready for your baby's arrival, your body's changing, you're preparing for |
| 0:50.7 | birth. |
| 0:51.3 | There's a long list of things to learn about, feeding, sleeping, |
| 0:55.6 | caring for a newborn, all of that matters. But what gets much less attention is the mental |
| 1:01.9 | and emotional shift that comes with becoming a mother. So in today's episode, I'll walk you |
| 1:08.0 | through 10 ways to mentally prepare for motherhood. Hear what the research |
| 1:13.0 | tells us about how your brain adapts during pregnancy, why bonding doesn't always happen at first sight, |
| 1:20.4 | learn what to expect for your relationship with your partner, and how to navigate the harder |
| 1:26.0 | emotions that can come with being a mom. |
| 1:29.1 | Whether this is your first baby, or it's not in your growing your family, |
| 1:34.3 | mentally preparing for this new phase is one of the most valuable things that you can do before |
| 1:40.4 | your baby arrives. You can see the full article and all of the resources that accompany this |
| 1:47.2 | episode at Pregnancy Podcast.com slash motherhood. You are currently listening to the public feed of the |
| 1:57.4 | podcast. That means that you'll hear ads and have access to a limited selection of |
| 2:03.2 | episodes. Become a pregnancy podcast premium member to get access to every episode of the podcast |
... |
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