Is this meditation safe during pregnancy?

Yes. This is gentle guided practice with no breath-holding or physical exertion. Listen in any comfortable position. If a practice increases distress rather than easing it, stop and speak with your midwife, GP, or a mental health professional.

Do I need the app to listen?

No. Press play on this page for the full guided audio and transcript. The My Maternal Mind app adds offline caching, ambient sound mixing, and a daily meditation written for your current week.

Mixed Feelings

Week 8

0:00−6:12

Background sound

Duration:: 6 min
Stage:: Pregnancy · Week 8
Best for:: When the feelings do not match the happy script

How to practise

In the first trimester, ambivalence is allowed; more than one feeling can be true can show up quietly or all at once. This guided meditation makes room for the feeling without turning it into a lesson you are meant to pass.

Excitement, fear, grief for your old life, numbness, joy, doubt, sometimes all in a single afternoon. The world expects new pregnancy to feel like one clean emotion. It rarely does. This practice gives all of your feelings a seat, without ranking them or deciding which one is the real one.

Find a position that supports you (seated or lying down). Press play and let the guidance move at its own pace. There is no correct way to feel, and nothing to visualize on demand.

This episode is written for week 8. It fits best when the feelings do not match the happy script, though you can return whenever the week feels heavy or unfamiliar.

Each week in the series stands alone. Listeners often join at their current week and circle back later; the arc rewards continuity, but nothing here assumes you have been listening since week one.

Full transcript

Welcome to Week Eight.

If your feelings right now are a tangle, excitement one hour, fear or flatness or grief the next, you are not doing anything wrong, and you are not alone. Early pregnancy is supposed to feel like one bright, happy thing. For a lot of people, it simply does not.

So today we are not going to tidy your feelings into the "right" one. We are going to let them all be here. Let's begin.

…

Let's begin by settling.

…

Find a position that supports you. Let your weight be held.

…

Let your eyes close, or rest them softly open.

…

Breathe in slowly.

…

And let it go.

…

Let's steady with the breath. In… one… … two… … three… … four…

…

And out, longer. Out… one… … two… … three… … four… … five… … six…

…

Again, in your own time.

…

Let the counting go.

…

There is a story that says becoming a parent should feel like pure happiness from the very first moment. It is a tidy story, and it leaves a lot of people feeling broken when their own experience is messier than that.

…

So let's put the tidy story aside. Picture your feelings as a group of people sitting around a table. The excitement is there. The fear is there. Maybe a quiet grief for the life you are leaving behind, or a strange numbness, or a doubt you have not said out loud. They have all pulled up a chair.

…

You do not have to throw any of them out. You do not have to decide which one is the real feeling, or the right feeling. You can let them all sit at the table together, the way real feelings actually do.

…

Mixed feelings are not a sign that you do not want this. They are a sign that you are a whole person, meeting something enormous and complicated. Of course it is not just one thing.

…

Let your breath move gently through all of it. Nothing to resolve today.

…

Now, three quiet truths. Let each one land in the body.

…

The first. All of my feelings are allowed to be here.

…

Notice where you feel that, if anywhere.

…

The second. I do not have to feel only one thing.

…

Let it settle.

…

And the last. There is no right way to feel about this.

…

Just let that be true, without having to earn it.

…

Stay a little longer, breathing, with everyone at the table.

…

And when you are ready, begin to come back. Feel your weight. Feel your hands.

…

Let your breath rejoin your day.

…

Open your eyes slowly, if they were closed.

…

And carry yourself, and all your honest feelings, gently from here.

…

That is the end of this week's practice.

Mixed feelings are a normal part of this. If a heavier feeling settles in and stays, though, low mood or anxiety that will not lift, your midwife or GP can help, and it is worth telling them. You deserve support for the hard feelings as well as the happy ones.

We will meet again next week.

FAQ

When should I listen to Week 8?: This practice is designed for when the feelings do not match the happy script, though you can return any time during pregnancy.
Is this meditation safe during pregnancy?: Yes. This is gentle guided practice with no breath-holding or physical exertion. Listen in any comfortable position. If a practice increases distress rather than easing it, stop and speak with your midwife, GP, or a mental health professional.
Do I need the app to listen?: No. Press play on this page for the full guided audio and transcript. The My Maternal Mind app adds offline caching, ambient sound mixing, and a daily meditation written for your current week.

Related practice

Practise with the full toolkit in the app

This episode is one of fifty-one in the Pregnancy Weeks series, with ambient sound mixing, streak tracking, and a daily meditation written for your current week.

Download now

My Maternal Mind supports your wellbeing during pregnancy and birth preparation. It does not replace medical advice, midwifery care, or mental health treatment. Discuss your birth plan and any concerns with your care team.

Last reviewed: 2026-06-30