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COVID-19: Our Brains, Our Bodies, Our Trauma. Part 3.
Part 3: Stay Connected
I am 7.5 months into the wild ride that is pandemic pregnancy. At my most recent OB appointment, my doc sent me home with a loaned blood pressure cuff and a fetal Doppler machine. Out of COVID-19 precaution, my next several appointments will be held over the phone; I will monitor my own blood pressure and use the hand-held ultrasound device to monitor baby’s heartbeat.
If you’re reading this and have ever carried a baby or been close with someone who has, you can perhaps imagine just how distracting it is to have constant access to a fetal heartbeat monitor.
So, yes. I tune into baby’s environment fairly often (that may or may not be an understatement) and what I am struck by is the rhythm within which she is living. The sound of her heartbeat, the sound of mine, and the sound of the fluid around her. Even when I am still, her world is full of rhythm. When I engage in self-regulation — yoga, song, walking — the flow and cadence becomes stronger. It is kind of an incredible thing.
We’ve explored rhythm and its role in self-regulation. Here we will explore it as it applies to relational regulation: the missing piece we need to soothe our activated stress responses (head over to Part 1 if you’re clueless as to what that means) and get our…
