The social effects of pregnancy are multiple and involve the new mother trying to balance her role as partner, friend, parent and co-worker. Pregnancy can be extremely socially challenging as one's former life changes drastically with the arrival of the child. Most women wish to become a positive role model for the child and try to change their social and economic life drastically. In trying to become the perfect parent, it becomes difficult when parents set goals for themselves that they cannot meet because of who they are as well as economical and other limitations.
What is most important is loving the child and providing the necessary emotional support for her or him to grow into happy responsible adults. Being a parent is something that one learns on the job and one may not get things right always. And while family and well meaning friends may offer a lot of advice on how to bring up the baby and go about tasks, it is important for the mother to understand her limitations and act accordingly
There may also be problems with the division of labor at home where breastfeeding becomes part of one's life and takes changes are felt in one's sex life.
Arguments may even arise about the division of labor around the house and the young mother will need about a year for her body to heal completely after delivery. The social effects of pregnancy involve a lot of pressure on the mother both pre and post pregnancy and she will require an enormous amount o support from her partner and family to get through these trying periods. This is essential for her emotional well being and the mother's happiness ensures the child's happiness as well. Mothers are often afflicted with pre and post natal depression and social support is the only way to get over it. One of the things that affects young mothers is the amount of weight they have put on and the subsequent change to one's body. Once the child is born she is socially pressurized into gaining that pre-pregnancy figure. This cannot be done overnight and it would be advisable to lose weight gradually over a year's time. Care ought to be taken not to crash diet or not eat at all as this will affect the health of the breast feeding baby. Diets can drastically bring down one's energy levels and taking care of the baby can be draining both physically and emotionally. Hence it is necessary to maintain a healthy balanced diet.
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