When Pregnant Women Experience Life Saving Dreams
Being pregnant can be a real roller coaster ride. Samantha found this out through the power of her dreams.
Sam is my niece. I was involved with dream study at the School of Metaphysics during her pregnancy, so I was the first person she thought of when she wanted to talk about her dreams.
Her “Roller Coaster Dream” sparked a thought in my mind:
Do women have different types of dreams when they are pregnant?
A perfect opportunity to discover the answer was immediately available as it just so happened that seven of my friends and family were pregnant at this same time.
To further my investigation, I started a Dream Catcher’s group: a private pregnancy dream share group in Facebook. I invited my pregnant friends and family to the group I created called Pregnancy Dreamers and ended up with eight total members.
I had so much curiosity. Would their dreams all be similar? Would they be violent or calm? Would they be about their physical or mental state of being? What could a pregnant woman’s subconscious be telling her during this life-changing time?
I learned this and much more. There can be life-saving miracles in our dream messages, when we know how to interpret them.
Sam is twenty-seven years old and has been trying to get pregnant for a while, so when she finally does, you can imagine her anxiety.
Sam has two dreams in one night:
DREAM NUMBER 1:
I had a dream last night that I was on a roller coaster and not strapped in because I didn't know it was a roller coaster and it went on a drop and I was holding on for dear life. I started to lift up higher and higher right before it hit the bottom of the drop and I was really scared. EOD
DREAM NUMBER 2:
My second dream was that we were floating the river (on an inner tube) and I had to go down a shoot with the ice chest by myself and I couldn't find Tyler (Sam’s husband). Right before we got in the water I couldn't find a shirt to fit because my belly was too big. EOD
“I was so afraid when I woke up,” Sam’s distress is real even as a dream memory. I want Sam to understand the meaning of her dreams to alleviate her fear.
Sam is good at remembering her dreams, but neither she, nor the other pregnant dreamers know how to interpret them so I open the group by telling them two rules of dream interpretation that I learned in my studies with the School of Metaphysics:
1. Every dream is about the dreamer
2. Everything and everyone in the dream is the dreamer.
“Dreams are messages from our intuitive, subconscious minds to our waking, conscious minds,” I explain. “The mind uses the Universal Language of Mind, a picture language, for communication.”
We discuss the symbols and their meanings using Dr. Barbara Condron’s The Dreamer’s Dictionary as a reference. The Dream Catcher’s format expands the learning beyond just Sam, so that all the Pregnancy Dreamers’ group members will benefit. My dream group is about to see how dreams can save a mother and her baby’s life.
Sam’s perspective on life and her attitude toward her life are evident in these two dreams.
Both dreams begin with an attitude of fun. However, both dreams turn scary.
A roller coaster is a system that repeats itself within a framework just like neural pathways in your brain. In a dream, a roller coast symbolizes these pathways. It tells Sam that she is locked into a certain way of thinking about her life. She is “not strapped in” which reflects unawareness or not paying attention to what is happening in the present moment.
The second dream is linked to the first one commenting on how Sam is moving through her everyday life experiences. This is symbolized by “floating on a river”. Sam is floating along, cooperating with her life until she is “going down”, illustrating the unknown. The dream is helping her to admit her reaction to impending motherhood.
In both dreams, she loses control. She steps way out of her comfort zone.
In the Universal Language of Mind, “clothes” represent how one is expressing the self. I know that Sam is very conscious about how her emotions look to the outside world, wanting to portray a strong and capable attitude. I immediately (and much too fast) start thinking this dream is about the ups and downs caused by hormonal changes during pregnancy. This is certainly applicable, yet what transpires during Sam’s waking life gives all of us deeper insight into women’s intuition and the power of dream interpretation.
The day following the dreams, Sam rushes to the emergency room. She is admitted to the hospital. She is diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, a disorder of pregnancy in which there is high blood pressure and either large amounts of protein in the urine or other organ dysfunction.
Immediately, my mind recalls Sam’s dreams and I am given insight I previously could not see. Sam’s dreams held codes about her health! Beneath the pregnancy fears and frequently experienced hormonal swings was another message I could have seen in hindsight. From my studies, I was aware that a dream is most often related to the days right before the dream happens. I had a living example of how dream interpretation includes the bigger picture of the dreamer’s waking life.
As a Dream Consultant, I now want to ask the dreamer about their thoughts and actions in the days leading up to the dream. I want to know if Sam had any inkling of health problems before the dream.
“I knew the swelling was bad,” Sam confided. “I had right rib pain and was seeing spots in my vision.” These are all signs of preeclampsia. “I took a 24-hour urine test Sunday and turned it into the doctor on Monday.” Her Roller Coaster Dreams came Sunday night, in-between the two.
The next time I hear from Sam is after she gets out of the hospital. She tells me about a new dream.
ANOTHER roller coaster dream!!
It started off us going to a theme park and riding rides all day. We were standing in lines doing theme park stuff. (It was so real I had the "before you ride jitters and sinking gut feeling") At one point I could tell the way Zachary (baby’s name) was laying in my belly, and his hand was under his head. He lifted his head and yawned. I tried to tell my mom and sister but they ignored me and it made me sad. At the end of the day my mom and sister and me are standing in one last line to ride and it hits me that I'm supposed to be on bed rest and I should not be here and I freak out. I see a sign on the roller coaster that says I should not ride if I'm pregnant so I get out of line. I look down and my feet are swollen as bad as they were when I went into the hospital. I felt scared, sad, and disappointed in myself. Then I woke up. EOD
The night before I also dreamt of a roller coaster, but when I woke up I had to potty really bad and when I got back in bed I completely lost the dream. I just knew it had something to do with roller coasters. It's really weird that I keep dreaming of them.
This time I begin by asking Sam about her thoughts and actions the days before the dream.
“My actual feelings for the past few days have been up and down,” she says. “I’m trying to stay positive and hopeful that everything will keep steady and smooth
“Sometimes I get scared at the thought of what could come. Preeclampsia can get really bad at any moment. Because Zachary will be born a little early I'm scared of the day he is born. Trying to just keep thinking positive.
“So I'm up and down.”
The image of a roller coaster is an obvious symbol we can all recognize.
“I know that I am scared and I'm trying to be calm,” she volunteers, “but it's hard. So I may not be actually calming myself down like I keep trying to tell myself I am. I'm scared for my baby and myself. Last night I was nervous before bed because I just didn't feel 100% and I'm scared I'll go to sleep it get worse.
“I have been trying to be so strong for everyone around me so as to not cause them worry, and here I realize I have to tell you the truth in order for us to figure out what these dreams mean. “
Sam’s admonition gave us permission to work on her dreams together. We came to the conclusion that her subconscious mind was warning her once more about the seriousness of her condition. The reason we have reoccurring dreams is because we do not listen the first time. The subconscious mind will keep trying to give us its message and the conscious mind has to be willing to receive it.
What is amazing about this dream is the sign clearing spelling out: DO NOT RIDE IF PREGNANT.
Sam told me that her sister represents a stubborn aspect of herself. This is the aspect of Sam that tries to look strong so others won’t worry about her situation. This dream was advising Sam to let go of her stubborn thoughts and take care of herself and her baby, first and foremost.
As we worked together, Sam realized she had been ignoring her spiritual ideals, symbolized in her dream by her swollen feet. “Feet” in the Universal Language of Mind represent spiritual foundation. Her swollen feet were in the dream to get her attention. To emphasize this spiritual need her mother - who represents her superconscious mind - was ignoring her. Sam was ignoring her situation, trying to look strong and deal with everything internally. It was time to still her mind, let her body heal and let others help.
I explained a concentration routine to her which involved a simple diaphragmatic breathing technique. After this discussion, she messaged me with this:
“Did some deep breaths tonight. 10 minutes of meditation like you said. And no more dwelling on the ‘what ifs’ that I have no control over and have to make it through this. Getting ready for bed. I plan on focusing on my breathing when trying to fall asleep. Hopefully I'm on the path to fixing this anxiety and that is what my body has been trying to tell me to do. Thank you and I love you!”
The women in my Pregnancy Dreamer’s group learned much from Sam’s dream experience. They realized that dreams can actually be life saving. Sam learned to listen to her inner self and not be too proud to ask for help. She was not alone. Dreams contain important messages from our subconscious mind, the source of our dreams. To listen and to apply them to the waking life supports soul progression.
Sam and the other dreamers in my group continued to dream throughout their pregnancies. Their dreams carried many of the same themes. Home invasion was actually the most common theme throughout everyone’s pregnancy. Amusement parks, guns, no one helping, and no one listening were common.
Though the dreamers in our group also experienced varied dreams, the amount of similar dreams lead me to the conclusion that pregnant dreamers have many of the same fears and anxieties as reflected by the common themes. I believe now that pregnant dreamers do have different dreams than other women.
I am thankful that by having this dream share group, I was able to bring dreaming to the attention of people who would not normally have paid attention to their dreams. The opportunity helped to alleviate some of the women’s misinterpretations, which would have normally caused more fear.
The experiences also lead to a continuation of dream sharing by many of the group’s members even after giving birth. In turn, I also learned a great deal about dream consultation and how important the input of the dreamer is to the interpretation. By incorporating this back-and-forth discussion into my dream interpretation sessions I will know better how to advise the dreamer to apply their dream to their waking life, which I believe is the ultimate goal of a Dream Interpretation Coach.