Pregnancy and Dreams
Birth Dreams During Pregnancy
Pregnancy is one of the most powerful experiences any woman can face. A woman’s body changes enormously during childhood and adolescence, but to meet such enormous physical, personal and social changes as an adult is a huge challenge. A woman’s dreams at such a time not only show some of the detailed events that are occurring physically, but also comment on psychological and relationship events and subtleties too. See A Woman’s Creative Power
Robert Van de Castle made a special study of women’s dreams during pregnancy – (Our Dreaming Mind). Other studies were made by Carolyn Winget and Frederic Kapp.
Castle found that during pregnancy women tend to dream about buildings and houses a lot more than in a control group. The dreams would be about things like adding a porch to the house, or seeing distorted parts of a building. These he felt were expressing the change in physical shape the woman was experiencing. As pregnancy progressed so did the shape or size of the buildings.
Those Scary Dreams
Other themes more common in the dreams of pregnant women than in those of a control group are those of animals and water. At first such dreams of water or animals may be calm, even healing, but later on in pregnancy there may be dreams of turmoil or even nightmare. Several studies show this is normal in the sense that it is experienced by many women, and probably reflects the anxieties unconsciously held by the woman about her unborn baby and about birth.
It is also very common for women to dream about actually having the baby, and these dreams are often bizarre or even disturbing to the dreamer. Winget and Kapp found that a high percentage of dreams showed this theme of anxiety, and by following their research through, they were able to observe that the more anxiety dreams a mother-to-be had, the easier the birth was. They conjectured that the anxiety dreams release a lot of tension and fear, and the mother is therefore more relaxed at the time of the birth – usually less than ten hours.
The anxiety dreams include such images as giving birth to a baby who is only a few ounces in weight – the baby is malformed – the baby is born dead – the baby is blind or deaf or injured.
On a positive note these pre-natal dreams may show the baby born and capable of walking and talking right away, or being a beautiful or holy child. Such dreams are also occasionally dreamt by men. Men may even dream of being pregnant and giving birth to a beautiful or holy child.
Castle was able to follow the dreams of over 200 pregnant women, often from about the time of conception through to their post natal situation and experience. One of his interests was to see if dreams showed signs of information about physical conditions that were not apparent at the time of the dream. He says that many dreams did in fact show that small shifts in the physical state, such as conception, were shown in appropriate symbols in the dreams of some women. So if you have a worrying dream about your baby it is worth making sure you check out its condition, something that with modern equipment is easily done. To quote Castle, “The unconscious mind of the pregnant woman seems able to monitor and detect biochemical imbalances, tissue abnormalities, or structural defects in the uterine environment and communicate an awareness of disturbed functioning through dream imagery, which is sometimes fairly literal, sometimes symbolic.”
You are in touch with your baby
But accounts of birth dreams stretch far back into history, and such dreams are said to occur long before conception. In these cases a woman – or sometimes a man – may dream of a child who may be conceived in the future.
Janet Smith, writing in the magazine Sundance about dreams she recorded prior to and during pregnancy, reports this dream:
Example: There are two puppies and some strawberry seedlings. My husband, Eddie, gives the puppies their shots and I plant the seedlings. The puppies run away. I lose one but retrieve the other which I fondle. I try to think up Italian names because it is an Italian puppy.
Janet connects this dream with the fact that she later became pregnant soon after stopping the birth pill, and lost the baby. Within weeks she was pregnant again and carried that child. Interestingly, Rosemary Guiley, in her book The Encyclopaedia of Dreams, states that many dreams occurring in connection with pregnancy include animals to represent the foetus. She gives an example of a dream in which a newly pregnant woman dreams of swimming amongst turtles, and says that amphibian creatures may represent the foetus. In later stages of pregnancy the baby may be represented by rabbits or a puppy as with Janet’s dream.
An interesting series of dreams was reported to me by a man who dreamt that an invisible being came to a room in which he and his wife were living. The spirit had a very powerfully presence and the dreamer felt afraid. Then the being spoke, saying, ‘Do not be afraid. I have come to ask you to make love to form a body for me.’
After the dream the man, already with several children, wondered about whether to take the dream seriously. He and his wife did make love. Two weeks later he dreamt that he heard his wife crying. When he went to her she told him she was pregnant and it was a difficult child to carry. Still in the dream he then knew that the pain was because the child was a special or unusual being who would be a male. Weeks later his wife was found to be pregnant. The child when born was a boy.
Usually the dreams which show conceptions are of a more symbolic nature. Castle quotes one in which the woman dreams she looks at an open shoe-box. Then a purring kitten active with a pink ribbon tied around its neck springs into the box. Straight away the sides of the box start to fold over, closing tight. The woman could feel the kitten moving anxiously against the side of the box, which now seemed to be zipped up.
Conception dreams may include such symbols as a room without doors or windows, putting bread in an oven, watching or getting involved with a creature in a pool or in water, seeing seeds grow or witnessing new plants develop. Some such dreams use the image of the strawberry, perhaps because it has a similarity to the budding cells in a foetus. Still others might use the image of a ploughed field or the earth and the moon. Often there is a feeling of pleasure or even a direct sense of conception linked with the images. A dream told me which seems typically to do with conception is – Last week I suddenly started having a recurring dream. In it I woke, walked downstairs, went into the kitchen and looked in the kettle. It was full of little fish. Karen LBC.
Castle mentions an interesting case in which a woman who had been attending an infertility clinic with her husband could clearly see conception in her dream when it occurred. For two years while attending the clinic she constantly dreamt of having a baby, but there was always a problem attached to it. The baby might be too small to handle, to large, or it was a doll not a real baby. Always there was a problem connected with being able to mother the baby. Then suddenly the dreams changed. She woke from a dream which left her with warm feelings of fulfilment. In it she satisfyingly held her baby for the first time. She says the dream must have occurred within hours of the moment of conception.
Hey – I’m pregnant!
These dreams can be so powerfully supportive that the prospective mother can face difficulties that without the dream, she might not have met with confidence. For instance Peggy, a woman who believed from medical evidence that she could not, and should not have any more children – she already had two teenage sons – dreamt she was in hospital and had given birth to a girl baby named Kathy. Peggy begs for the baby to be taken away, but a voice cries out – ‘YOU MUST HAVE THIS BABY’. Peggy awoke distressed as she deeply wanted a child. But when the pregnancy was confirmed she struggled with the decision as to whether she ought to keep it. She was suffering a nerve complaint which necessitated the taking of sixteen aspirin tablets a day. Medical advice had suggested this could lead haemorrhaging, to a haemophiliac child. But Peggy decided to go ahead with the pregnancy because the dream and the commanding voice haunted her. The baby when delivered was perfectly healthy and a beautiful child.
In his book Our Dreaming Mind, Castle describes many dreams which occurred to women during their months of pregnancy, which gave detailed information about the condition of the foetus and its future health or sickness. Mother-in-laws often appear in these dreams, giving positive advice, sharing information, or in some way being responsible for bad events.
Not only do the dreams point out details of what diet might be helpful, what might happen with surgical operations, what the physical health and development of the growing baby is, but often they detail the disposition and personality of the coming baby. In fact women have often told me that during the middle months, they often dream they are meeting their baby and know just what it is like. So the bonding in such cases begins before birth. The relationship starts in dreams and quiet moments of communion.
It must be stressed that nightmarish dreams are a common part of most pregnancies, and in general do not indicate any difficulty with the growing baby. As already said, women who experience more anxiety dreams usually have a shorter labour. One investigator suggests this is because these women are often more assertive in life and in their dreams. Where dreams indicate actual problems, they have an extremely vivid quality which leaves the dreamer with a deep sense of their truth. This conviction does not rest on anxiety, but on insight.
The positive dreams of a mother in which she has a sense of knowing her baby’s character, can reach far beyond the birth of the baby. They inform the mother long into the life of the child, aiding how the mother responds to problems arising in the long years of rearing.
The enormous number of women who experience unusual dreams about their conception and baby is an powerful indicator that human nature goes beyond the boundaries of the physical senses, and information we gain via them. The dreams create a picture of the mother as a weaver of a life from the many strands offered by family genetic material, the subtle living influences streaming from the past, and the events, standards and social life of our times. The mother is a co-creator, standing in mysteries which, while she may not understand consciously, she nevertheless touches through her dreams, and manifests in the life of the child.
For some very interesting features about pregnancy and your baby’s dreams, See Pregnancy; Baby Dreams; shorter labour; Pregnancy and Childbirth.
Comments
I had a dream that i had my son and he came out almost perfect.. he had a full head of dark almost black hair and he was so adorable. Kind of curious as to what this means
Nicole – What can I do except bury my head in my hands…. Because I have to assume so much here; I have to assume you are pregnant with your baby, and assume that you know it is a boy, and that you feel it is a true dream.
If I am right in assuming that, then the clarity of your dream suggests it is a real picture of your son. So hold on to it and keep the feeling of how adorable he is in your heart.
Tony
When I conceived my son -he is 7 yrs old now- I had a dream where I was coming into a church with a baby boy in my arms, he was about 4-5 months old and he was wearing a blue outfit. He full black hair and fair skin, suddenly he started talking to me saying ” I am on my way’ and I replayed ” how come you are talking? you are just a baby?” he kept talking to me but I don’t really remember what else he said. Two weeks alter I dream about taking a pregnancy test that came up positive, that morning I went to get a hpt and it showed a faint line, it was 4 days early to have my period which never came. Along the pregnancy I had all kind of vivid dreams. The very day my ordeal with severe morning sickness started -4 weeks along- I had a dream where I saw exotic flowers growing out of my belly, when I woke up I run to the bathroom to throw up and I never stopped feeling sick til I was 14 weeks. Also in a dream I heard a voice saying ” your baby will be born 45 days from now” I went to the calendar and marked 45 days further and it pointed at Dec 31. My son was born Jan 1 and had a full head of black hair just like I saw him in my dream.
Last night my bf and I had intercourse and he pulled out, all day I had the ovulation pain on my right side so the timing is kinda set for a chance. Then I had a dream where he was carrying around a baby girl and when she started crying he let me hold her, I saw her face and she had green eyes -like my bf- and blond hair, she was 4-5 months old, just like I dreamed my son years ago. I woke up feeling so rested and relaxed but mostly feeling very happy and optimistic. I shared the dream with him just in case it turns out to be another predictive dream like with my son and turn out to be pregnant.
Lou – Thank you for sharing so much with me. Strangely enough today I saw a feature by a professor saying that according to his findings dreams have no meaning and serve no purpose. Oh dear!
I get so much from hearing peoples dreams. And I guess you realise that you are in process of creating a new miracle. And also I home you bring up your children to believe that they ARE a miracle.
Tony
I am 17 weeks pregnant, and I don’t know the sex yet.
My dream was on the birth of my daughter who everyone thought it was a boy that I was expecting but it ended up being a healthy baby girl. In the dream I felt like I knew it was going to be girl, like my motherly instincts told me so. The dream also focused on the relationship I have with the baby’s father which was rocky in the dream and also a rocky relationship in reality.
Maria – Motherhood is a miracle. And you are part of that miracle.
It sounds as if your baby is going to be lovely.
As for the relationship, I feel sometimes we put so many conditions around a relationship, and that can turn it bad. But I know women are capable of great love, and when they express it they can be loved in return without conditions.
This may not be relevant to you, but if you honestly explore where jealousy, fear of abandonment, dependency on your partner arises from, I know from experience in tracing my own and many other people’s love problems that they arise from childhood.
Perhaps you will have to accept this on trust, but love is not something you possess or develop. It is like life itself, given to you as a part of your existence. It flows through you, and that flow may have been damaged or twisted during your life, but it is still fundamentally there in you and can be released by undoing the knots. Then it is yours whether you are with a partner or not. Love is then a meeting of equals who shine the precious flow of this wonder on each other and magnify it. We do not claw at each other trying to get what is missing in ourselves.
Tony
Hi! I dreamt that i was 6month pregnant in a church while having communion. The thing is i have a boyfriend and of course we do plan to settle down in 2years time. What does this mean? Thanks
Meg – That is a very beautiful dream – and I don’ think it has anything to do having a boyfriend and settling down.
Having communion in a church and realising you are pregnant is a sign that are carrying a special child – not a physical baby, but something special you have allowed to grow in you.
I believe that about the time of the dream you felt a love of Life, a love anyway. And that opened your soul enough for you to conceive this child. If you nourish it with love it will grow and will be born to you – perhaps in another dream.
Maurice Nicoll says in his book The New Man, I will paraphrase it a little, that this birth is about the psychology of this possible inner development – that is, about what a person must think, feel, and do in order to reach a new level of understanding. It is about the central idea that we are all internally a seed capable of a definite growth. At the moment we are incomplete, unfinished.
So the child you give birth to will certainly show itself and if you cherish it will move you toward completing that growth.
I believe that in the past you have been seeking this – maybe not in the words I use.
You are blessed.
Tony
i am 8 weeks and 1 day pregnant. i have had two dreams so far during my pregnancy. the first dream i dont remember much but i had a little girl. last night though i had a very vivid dream that i had 2 baby boys and could see their faces perfectly. i was soo happy and overcome with joy. i know i was with my mom asking for advice on everything especially how to breastfeed them both. i remember changing both of their diapers and holding them and rocking them. what could these dreams mean and why do you think one was more vivid and memorable then the other?
Courtney – I am not certain about this dream except that you really want two boys. But whether that is what you are carrying is in doubt. I believe the last dream is more memorable because you have a lot of longing to give it vividness. But whatever the outcome your longing is a big factor. I am sorry I cannot be more definite. But whatever the sex of the child, it seems you will be an excellent mother.
Tony
hi! I have always heard if you dream about 1 sex you will actually be having the other.. I have been having dreams I am having a little girl.. The last dream I had was so vivid, there was no mistaking it was a she…. I am about 20 weeks now, and I am not finding out the sex… I remember the one dream I had was I left her in the back seat of the car and such then went to grab her and called her by the name that was on the list of names we picked.. So that name has kind of stuck.. Then another time, i was in the flower store, and a lady walked in and was getting her 2 yr olds attention and here it was the name I also picked spelled exactly how I wanted for if I was having a little girl (found that very odd since the spelling I picked was very random!) Could this be signs it is a little girl?
Allison – When you dream of a baby girl and you also know its name, it is almost certainly going to be a girl. So I think it will be a girl too.
So stick with the spelling you dreamt of. I know of two women who dreamt the name of their baby girls – and they gave birth to girls, and have the name and the spelling.
Blessings on this little girls head.
Tony
I keep having dreams that my bf and I have a baby. The other night I had a very vivid and emotional one. It started where I was pregnant and my water broke, I remember seeing blood. I apparently hadn’t know I was pregnant until I was 6 months. I started to cry and become extremely terrified and clung to my bf cry that I didn’t want to do this and I didn’t think I could handle a child. He held me and said it’s alright, If you hold it in your arms and you still think these thoughts we can give it up for adoption. I had the baby (don’t remember anything after entering the hospital) and suddenly I was holding this tiny little baby with eyes close and I remember the face. My bf and I were both so attached to it we kept it. The only thing is for some reason we couldn’t figure out the sex but I remember think over and over again that it was a girl. We brought her to our apartment and laid her down to rest. She was so quiet (apparently the way I was) and so adorable. We weren’t prepared for so we were freaking out trying to figure out how to get her everything she needed. We kept holding her and when I finally woke up I felt so attached and sad that she was gone. I kept feeling empty like she was missing from my life the rest of the day.
I’m pretty sure I’m NOT pregnant.
Hi, First off I want to say that I am not pregnant. I am a college student and i have been having the same dream for the past 4 nights, and it’s really starting to freak me out. So the dream starts and it is me, and im pregnant, but also a girl I know is pregnant as well. After this we’re at a doctor’s office and the doc checks out this other girl and takes forever. My family arrives and I guess that im giving up my baby, but i would never do that in life. My family is so happy for me, but I am nervous about everything. And then the doc calls me in with the other girl and the other girl isn’t pregnant and then the doc says that I have to make a decision on keeping it or not. and then i wake up and i never know if i keep the baby or not. But i know that i love that baby with all my heart and it feels so real that when I wake up I expect to see a big pregnant belly on me. I really need help on this dream.
Kelsey – It seems as if you have the makings of a beautiful mother.
Some young women have such dreams as early as 11, and they are a way of you practising and strengthening your womanhood and mothering skills. In a dream we can experience things without any risk. In doing so we are actually learning where our fears are and what to do about them.
In your dream you are anxious that the baby will be taken from you. I suppose at the moment you are in a life situation in which it might happen that you could not keep the baby. But remember that you want this baby, so practice keeping it, realising that you do not have to make this decision now.
You need to visualise a different ending to your dream. Maybe practise till it feel you have achieved it. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/example-15-life-changes/
Tony
Hi,
Interesting to hear so many dreams..
Let me start with saying that I’m 15 weeks pregnant.Yesterday I had a very happy dream which kept me smiling through the day..
This is how it went.. Me & my friends are outsomewhere..we are on a clean well tarred road..with green lush paddy fields by the side, the climate is pleasant with a nice chilly breeze and we reach a gushing stream..the stream is tree lined and through the trees we can see the expanse of the paddy fields..and amidst many colorful birds which appear out of nowhere I saw the most beautiful baby ever..the baby comes towards me and touches me..it was truly heavenly…The baby seemed to interact only with me as my friends looked on
Anu – What a lovely dream. I do not know whether you have looked at the section on Pregnancy and Childbirth, but there are several features about the unborn baby communicating with the mother.
Yours sounds like that, and of course the baby interacts with you only – it loves you. It has chosen you as its mother because of its love. Its beauty is as it is as a spirit, so it may not look the same when your baby is born – but even so it will be lovely.
Tony
I’m 21 weeks pregnant and I keep having the scariest dreams.Last night I dreamt that a man dressed as a woman kidnapped my 4yr old daughter then my daughters teacher and myself were fighting with this man to tell us where my daughter was at that time I woke up in tears.All day long I’ve been thinking about this man with a wig.I can see his face so clearly which scares me.
Nelly – This is almost certainly an anxiety dream, the sort you get in a healthy pregnancy. Anxiety was present in over 80 percent of the dream reports of those who subsequently delivered in less than 10 hours, but was scorable in only 25 percent of the dreams of the prolonged labour group (over 20 hours). The women who were intermediate in frequency of anxiety themes were also intermediate in length of labour.
This supports the hypothesis that the function of the dream is an attempt to master, in fantasy, an anticipated stress in waking life. So we see that for some women the anticipated trauma of childbirth is too great to be allowed even symbolic or displaced expression in dreams. . . . Such women are tenser both psychologically and physiologically than the women who have used dreaming as a psychologic immunisation to prepare themselves for the approaching confinement.” Quoted from The Dreaming Mind by Robert van de Castle Ph.d.
So your anxiety is a good sign, because it will mean a shorter labour, it shows a healthy pregnancy unless other dreams say differently.
Tony
I am 13 weeks and 4 days along, I ve been having a nightmare, I am asleep in my bed all alone, and a man sits beside me and starts touching my belly. I am completely scared and tell him I am pregnant, and he gets mad and starts clenching my tummy to rip my baby in pieces! I cry and it hurts alot, but there is no one to help and nothing I can do, then, still dreaming, I wake up and my husband gets home, seeing him and realizing it is a dream makes me feel comforted, then I realize I am still dreaming, I panic! my husband disappears, and afraid that the man might come back I desperately try to wake up, and I do wake up for real, covered in sweat and afraid to go back to sleep.
I dont understand, we are all happy with my pregnancy and the doctor says everything is perfect and to be honest I cant wait to hold my baby in my arms, does this nightmare mean anyting?
Galy – It means you are having natural fears about your baby. In fact the fact you have such dreams, which are real anxiety dreams means you will have a quicker birth.
Many women have bizarre or even disturbing about their baby. Winget and Kapp found that a high percentage of dreams showed this theme of anxiety, and by following their research through, they were able to observe that the more anxiety dreams a mother-to-be had, the easier the birth was. They conjectured that the anxiety dreams release a lot of tension and fear, and the mother is therefore more relaxed at the time of the birth – usually less than ten hours.
The anxiety dreams include such images as giving birth to a baby who is only a few ounces in weight – the baby is malformed – the baby is born dead – the baby is blind or deaf or injured.
So please do not be frightened of such dreams. They are ways of doing what I call your housework – cleaning up your fears and feelings.
Tony
I will start by saying I am not pregnant. Two nights ago I dreamt that I was walking along the street when I entered a hospital and gave birth (There were no signs I was pregnant prior to th.e birth) When I gave birth the baby turned out to be a Chihuahua. I vaguely remember people coming to visit and commenting on the puppy and my self saying that all babies look funny when they are first born and it will be fine. It was quite a distressing dream and even two days later I cannot shake it. Any help on interpreting this dream would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Jennie 🙂
Jennie – A woman often substitutes a puppy for her baby in dreams. It is normal.
Also were you premenstrual when you had the dream, as apparently it often happens that a woman dreams of having baby without any man involved at that time.
As I mentioned in a previous comment – Most pregnant women conjure visions of water, which psychologists say may represent the amniotic fluid. The foetus itself often appears in the guise of a baby animal such as a puppy or a kitten or, as in some cases, an amphibious creature such as a turtle. Overall, pregnant women dream about animals significantly more often than do women who are not expecting.
So you are normal.
Tony
Hey, this page hasn’t really been helpful with the dream I’ve been having, it has been recurring over the past few weeks, coming into my dream every few nights. It is unusual to me because I’m only 15, and definitely not pregnant! In the dream I dream I am in new york, and the man who I presume to be my boyfriend or husband and I arrive at a large house amongst a wealthy estate, when inside, all my family is there, and we feel my baby kicking, which ceases all of my fears that it may have died, then the scene doesn’t really change, but I’ve just had my baby, and it’s a girl, however when she is talking to me, (yes, it’s already at the age of around 4 even though it was just born) she says she used to be a physics teacher, and a male. In the dream I recall trying to ask her what her/his name was, so that I could do some research because it proves the idea of past lives and reincarnation etc. And the dream pretty much breaks of into something else from there.
I really cannot understand it, in the dream I am quite happy about having the baby, even though in it I am the same age as I am in waking life, and I know I’m definitely not pregnant. Could this dream be a warning of a pregnancy in the near future ? As a while ago a psychic told my dad that they could see me getting pregnant at a young age.
Any response to this will be much appreciated, because I’m going insane trying to work it out !
x
Caroline – What an interesting dream. I think you ought to read some of the features on this site, such as: The Near Birth Experience and Do Children Exist Prior to Conception and Birth?
This is one of those rare dreams that are a communication with the dead to the living. And it is requesting a new life! The dream has a feel of reality to it because of the details given – that do not seem at all dream like. I had such a dream, when an invisible figure asked me to have sex with my wife as he wanted a body to be born with us. It was a boy. There was more to it than that but I can vouch for such stories.
So now we have to wait and see, and see if any more dreams come that will explain. When my wife and I had sex after the request, I then dreamt she was pregnant, long before there were any signs.
As for timing, only Life can tell you when it will happen, and the dreamed about age may not be relevant.
Tony
I am about 10 weeks along and I keep having dreams that I am a man.
For example: in one, I was a male detective living with a family where the father was a murderer and i had to bring him down.
In another, I was an old man on a journey with three other companions going through different dimentions and trying to get out of trouble.
In the last one I had, I was a boy in high school helping a girl with a class assignment, at the end of the dream I was the captian of a singing/dance team and had to sing a song to a girl for her birthday in front of the whole school.
I am so confused! I keep wracking my brain trying to come up with an answer. Is this a sign that I’m going to have a boy?
please help
I am 6 weeks pregnant. I dreamt that my baby was born but had thick black curly hair all over his body. He was a boy, and he grew up to be a big black dog with yellow and green circles all over his fur. The baby grew to a dog in the matter of an afternoon.
What does this dream mean, and does this indicate that I am going to have a baby boy??
Brooke – I think the easiest way to answer your query is to quote from my book The New Dream Dictionary.
I dreamt there are two puppies and some strawberry seedlings. My husband, Eddie, gives the puppies their shots and I plant the seedlings. The puppies run away. I lose one but retrieve the other which I fondle. I try to think up Italian names because it is an Italian puppy.
Janet connects this dream with the fact that she later became pregnant soon after stopping the birth pill, and lost the baby. Within weeks she was pregnant again and carried that child. Interestingly, Rosemary Guiley, in her book The Encyclopaedia of Dreams, states that many dreams occurring in connection with pregnancy include animals to represent the foetus. She gives an example of a dream in which a newly pregnant woman dreams of swimming amongst turtles, and says that amphibian creatures may represent the foetus. In later stages of pregnancy the baby may be represented by rabbits or a puppy as with Janet’s dream.
So Brooke it is very likely that you will have a boy. I will bet on it 🙂
Tony