Your Pregnancy Dreams

A Quick Primer on Dream Analysis

A good rule of thumb when analyzing your dreams: Trust your first instinct; it's usually right. And take a light-hearted approach. Think of the process as playing with your dream, rather than analyzing it. Hold the dream in your hand, smush it around a bit, and toss it up in the air. Here are a few tried-and-true methods that should yield results:

Try a word association. Write down a word or a few words that describe or symbolize your dream. Without allowing yourself to think too much, quickly add any and all additional words that come to mind.

For example, if your descriptive words are: "whale," "ocean," and "movement," you may wind up adding such words as "sea," "salt," "algae," "cold," "warm," "fluid," "motion," "sailboat," or whatever else comes to mind. The words don't need to make sense, necessarily. You may find yourself writing down the words "taco," and "troubadour." Don't edit yourself in this or any other exercise. It is the ridiculous words, those words that seem most out of context, that may shed some light on the meaning of your dream.

Seek to identify the emotions behind the images. Often dreams raise issues that we'd rather not confront. Alas, the subconscious does not lie. Allow yourself to acknowledge the emotions conveyed in your dreams.

Write down descriptive words, such as "joy," "anxiety," "concern," or "ambivalence." Keep the paper with you for the day as a reminder to try and connect your dream emotions to your waking ones. Often, it is this waking connection that yields insight.

View your dream through a wide-angle lens. It is believed that we play the role of all the characters in our dreams. If you dream of being chased by a bank robber, for example, you are the bank robber as well as the person being chased. Scary? The truth is we all have many sides to our personalities. You're analyzing your dream, remember, not judging it. Allow yourself to experience the emotions of all the characters and you may be surprised by what you discover.

Pregnancy is both exhilarating and daunting. Your subconscious mind is no doubt sorting through both the good and the bad throughout these eventful nine months. Keep a journal of the poignant, wild, and down right wacky dreams you're experiencing, then compare notes with our dream guide. It will be fun to look back at your pregnancy dream journal as your child grows.