Thinking about or starting your IVF journey? Most of the time we are focused on finding out as much as we can about the medical process, but our emotional health for the journey ahead is as important. To prepare yourself emotionally, here are 10 tips to add to your routine.
- Be realistic and mindful of your worries and attempts to control outcomes. Remember: If you are trying to do everything perfectly, you are setting yourself up for failure.
- Your relationship with your spouse is going to be incredibly important. Start IVF on a healthy footing with each other. Prioritize healthy and honest communication. Ask your spouse what you can best do to support them instead of assuming you already know.
- Get support. Friends and family can make a huge difference on those difficult days. You might wish to limit the number of people you inform or designate only one family member to share your updates with. Try forums and speak with other couples undergoing the same experience. If you need additional support, consider turning to a professional counsellor who has experience with infertility. [speak to us for an infertility counselling session]
- Plan how you’re going to take leave from work or deal with a loss of focus in office; It can be tiring to keep coming up with reasons to absent yourself. Sharing about your treatment in confidence with your direct manager or close colleague could ease some of your work concerns.
- Self-care: regular time outs for YOURSELF that bring you pleasure can help you to deal with your emotions more effectively.
- Practice compassion. It’s normal to not want to continue certain social obligations for a time. It’s ok to feel overwhelmed at certain points. However, it is not healthy to judge yourself harshly during this process.
- Identify your emotional triggers. Some examples are receiving unhelpful questions, watching a television advertisement for infant nappies, or attending a social situation with many young families, amongst others.
- Plan how you will deal with your emotional triggers and consider strategies which have helped you in the past or develop new ones. An additional consideration is to avoid large decisions or stressful projects during this time to minimize getting overwhelmed.
- Plan something as a couple for the end of the IVF cycle in advance. Having some quality time to look forward to together to deal with your shared experiences, and to process your emotions, can give you some closure at this time.
- Take this journey one day at a time. Infertility treatments come with a whole range of issues, both unexpected and expected. Knowing that anxiety and expectations are part of the process, you can focus instead on the current things that you can do today to ease the stress on your body and channel them into productive outlets.
Mindwise Counselling Services & Training Pte Ltd
10 Anson Road, International Plaza, #24-09, Singapore 079903
(65) 6527 0526
https://mindwise.sg/infertility-counselling-singapore/
