When you are experiencing painful or annoying pregnancy symptoms like heartburn and cravings, you might wish that your husband or partner would also experience those symptoms so that they might understand how you feel. Did you know that your husband or partner may actually be feeling some of the symptoms of pregnancy along with you? The French call it “couvade syndrome”, but it is more commonly referred to as “sympathetic pregnancy” and most fathers to be experience it to some degree.
The variety of pregnancy related symptoms that men can experience alongside their pregnant partners is quite wide. This is very interesting because as we all know, men do not have pregnancy hormones coursing through their bodies like women do. Even so, things like nausea, heartburn, mood swings, insomnia, weight gain, and achiness are all within the range of possibilities for what a man may feel during his partner’s pregnancy.
One of the underlying causes of many of the sympathetic pregnancy symptoms experienced by men is anxiety. While they may not recognize it as such, men often experience a great deal of anxiety over becoming a parent whether for the first time or for a new addition to the family. There’s a lot to think about during a pregnancy, from changing roles to venturing into the uncharted territory of caring for a newborn or adding caring for a newborn to the rhythm that your household has already established.
A great way to help alleviate some of the symptoms that may be caused by anxiety is taking time to talk about the pregnancy and your hopes and concerns about what the future holds. Conversation can not only help you to feel connected to each other, it can also help you to plan ahead for how you will handle some of the upcoming events like the birth, maternity and paternity leave, and so on. While women are technically the only ones who can become pregnant, men can experience pregnancy symptoms right alongside them.
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