Pregnancy is a special period of almost every woman’s life, regardless of whether she wanted a baby so much or she did not planned such a big change in her existence. Usually, it is strongly experienced also by the father – as a baby, especially the first one, causes havoc in parent’s life and confronts them with something completely new. As for the birth, it looms large in the minds of future parents as well.
They also cause strong feelings in a dream. It often happens that a woman dreams about being pregnant, even if she is not going to; alternatively, a man dreams about his partner expecting a child. Dreams about pregnancy happen to be weird, sometimes even unreal – pregnancy may last extremely short or long, it may end with a birth which makes us scared and fearful, but also euphoric, the child may be born healthy or ill, a human or a monster and also, even an item.
Dreams about pregnancy not only concern women, but also men – who rarely admit to have them.
How to interpret a dream about pregnancy and a birth?
Dreams about pregnancy and a birth often appear for the people who are expecting a child, but also during the period of changes in the professional or private life. In the first case, they are the chance to confront our fears connected with the birth and to get used to the fact of appearing a new person in our life. Even the nightmares (e.g, about giving a birth to a deformed child) should not be taken as a warning – these are the tutorial from our unconscious mind which uses the world of dreams to present us various hypothetical scenarios and teaches us to deal with different situations. It is worth knowing that a birth for women who dreamed about it before is faster and less stressful.
In the other case when we dream about pregnancy and a birth, although we are not going to get through this in our real life soon, those motives may indicate that we are worried about a new job, new venture or choosing a new life path. Sometimes our decisions require a great effort, which does not come easy to us. Maybe introducing changes in real life is difficult for us?
How would Freud interpret a dream about pregnancy and a birth?
Freud believed that we never dream about a birth itself, and the symbols which indicate the need of having a child are different. In his opinion, the symbols were underwater canals, falling out teeth or dark water.
How Jung interpret a dream about pregnancy and a birth?
A birth appearing in dreams was for Jung the metaphor for discovering new aspects of personality, new self-awareness.