Pregnancy is an exciting, life-changing journey, but it often comes with its own set of challenges. When it’s all getting to be a bit much and you’re feeling overwhelmed, try turning to pregnancy affirmations for help. Affirmations have quickly become popular in recent years—and for good reason. These short mantras that you can recite to yourself help boost confidence, positively affect mental health and improve your ability to find gratitude in day-to-day life. Below, hear from experts how pregnancy affirmations can benefit you throughout those nine+ months, and how to add them into your routine.

Benefits of Reciting Affirmations During Pregnancy

Pregnancy is a time of transformation that changes almost every single aspect of life—and with that can come uncertainty, stress and anxiety. “When a person is pregnant, their entire self is affected—body, mind, and spirit—and the shifts they experience may feel wonderful or it may feel really hard,” says Christina Furnival, LPCC, a child and family counselor, author and mom of two. “Our thoughts impact our feelings, so reciting positive affirmations is a great way to encourage a healthy mindset [if] you're finding pregnancy challenging.” It can also help you connect to the person you were before baby, says meditation and mindfulness expert Josephine Alturi.

In recent years, several studies have proven the positive benefits of pregnancy affirmations, including reducing anxiety, fear and even postnatal blues. While some anxiety is par for the course during pregnancy, Furnival says it really becomes an issue when it starts to take over your thoughts and daily life. Luckily, adding affirmations for pregnancy into your daily routine can help counteract this.

How to Integrate Pregnancy Affirmations Into Your Routine

Like with any other new habit, when it comes to incorporating pregnancy affirmations into your daily life, consistency is key. “The more you say or read them, the more familiar you get with them, the more you strengthen neural pathways associated with healthy thinking and the better you feel.” Below, Furnival and Alturi offer their tips for how to build this habit:

Write pregnancy affirmations on sticky notes and post them somewhere you’ll see daily
Add some affirmations as the background image on your phone
Look in a mirror and recite the affirmations to yourself
Combine affirmations with a daily task, like brushing your teeth
Set affirmations as reminder notifications on your phone
Find websites with weekly newsletters about pregnancy and helpful affirmations

Along with consistency, Alturi says using “you” statements to refer to yourself by name, instead of “I” statements, can also be helpful. “This is called distanced self-talk,” she says. “Research has shown that stating an affirmation in this manner results in less rumination and negativity and leads to greater efficacy and acceptance by the mind.”

Do what works best for you

The most important way to incorporate affirmations into daily life? Do what works best for you. After all, for pregnancy affirmations to be effective, they have to be specific enough to your circumstances for you to believe them. “If you’re nervous about a pregnancy complication such as gestational diabetes, you wouldn't want your affirmation to be ‘I won't get gestational diabetes,’ because that's not certain,” she explains. “A better affirmation for would be ‘I’m doing what I can to fuel my health and nurture this baby.’” While your affirmations won’t always help you find certainty, they can help you discover a positive outlook. “If all you feed your mind is negativity, it is hard for it to believe anything else,” Alturi says.

Change the pregnancy affirmations as you need to

The one constant in pregnancy is that nothing is constant—your body and your mindset will shift many times over those three trimesters, as will the challenging circumstances you face. To ensure your affirmations stay true to your pregnancy journey, don’t be afraid to modify them. “You may [also] want to create a list of birthing affirmations to have during delivery, as laboring is a completely different beast than pregnancy,” Furnival adds. Alternatively, you can also stick to more general affirmations that will be applicable for your entire pregnancy from the get-go.

Positive Pregnancy Affirmations to Recite Daily

Now that you know how to recite affirmations during pregnancy (and why you should), you might be wondering what affirmations to use. According to both experts, topics for pregnancy affirmations might include:

Aspects of your journey you have control over
Your body and how it’s helping baby’s growth
How you and your partner are working as a team
Combating fears and worries you may be facing

To find topics that speak most to your individual journey, Alturi recommends journaling at the start of each trimester or month to uncover what needs and themes should be addressed. “From here, you can write out affirmations that target these feelings,” Alturi says. If you’re stuck and in search of positive pregnancy affirmations, below Furnival and Alturi list some of their favorite examples, with a mix of “I” and “you” statements.

I chose my medical team and I trust their care.
You are a strong and courageous woman.
My body is doing what it needs to for my baby. I can listen to what my body asks of me.
My partner and I are in this together. We will shift and adjust as a team.
I will work through challenges as they come.
I can center myself with my breath.
You’re going to be a wonderful parent.
Each contraction means I am closer to meeting my baby.
You are creating a nurturing environment for your baby.
I will do my best as a parent.
You are supported and loved.
My body is doing what it knows to do.
My body is so much more than what it looks like.
I feel gratitude for the availability of medical interventions to support me and my baby.
I am powerful.
You are ready.
My baby and I are a team.
I can notice and appreciate what my body is capable of.
I breathe in positivity and send it to my growing baby.
Instead of fighting my changing body, I welcome it with gratitude. It’s bringing me my baby.
My changing body is proof of how powerful I am.
You are doing everything you can for yourself and your baby.

Remember that your experience is unique, and you need to find pregnancy affirmations that suit your individual journey. “Even veteran parents going through pregnancy and delivery of an additional child will experience things differently each time,” Furnival says. “Find or create the affirmations that mean something to you and establish a routine. You’ll set yourself up for a healthy, reflective and hopefully more positive pregnancy and labor.”

About the experts:

Christina Furnival, LPCC, is a child and family counselor, mom of two and author of the books The Not-So-Friendly Friend and kids’ series Capable Kiddos. She earned her bachelor’s degree in childhood development from Vanderbilt University and her master’s degree in professional counseling from Lipscomb University, both located in Tennessee.

Josephine Alturi is an expert in meditation and mindfulness, as well as a fertility and parenting coach. She’s a mom to seven and created her family through in-vitro fertilization, international adoption and surrogacy. She uses this personal experience to inform her work. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Alturi is also the host of the podcast “Responding to Life: Talking Health, Fertility, & Parenthood,” as well as the author of Mindfulness Journal for Parents and 5 Minute Mindfulness for Pregnancy.

Plus, more from The Bump:

20 Positive Parenting Affirmations to Boost Mental Health

35 Daily Affirmations for Kids

10 Ways to Boost Your Mental Health During Pregnancy

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