Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.

Learn more at RWJF.org.

You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.

Hey there, Andy Tagle here.

I'm a reporter and producer for Life Kit, and I'm also on my way to a brand new title,

parent.

As of the recording of this episode, I am seven and a half months pregnant, and friends, this process has been a lot.

Don't get me wrong.

My partner and I are thrilled.

We're over the moon to be starting our own little family.

But also, wow, I truly did not know how many emotions I was capable of feeling

all at once until I got pregnant. The answer to date, I think, is somewhere around 27. And I know, I know,

emotionality comes with the territory. But the social, emotional, and mental weight of this

time is so much more than just those little flashes of great big feeling. The internal shifts

set off by pregnancy feel structural and endlessly bewildering. One of the biggest myths in pregnancy

is that it's going to be a happy, delightful,

exciting time, and they're just going to be happy memories from pregnancy.

And what we know, of course, is that pregnancy is a vulnerable time.

The fact of this teeny tiny, now cauliflower-sized stranger growing inside of me has led to a ton of mental push and pull.

This sense of wanting to do the things that will help you to prepare for becoming a mother or a parent

is sometimes conflicting with the sense of I want to be able to go for a run or I want to eat

...