How Do I Stay in My Baby Bubble With Everything Going On in the World?

A guide for pregnant women and new mothers struggling to protect their mental health during difficult times

The last few weeks, and honestly the last few years, have been heavy. If you’re pregnant or recently gave birth and finding it incredibly challenging to focus on your baby bubble with everything happening in the world right now, you’re not alone.

At last week’s prenatal yoga class in Amsterdam, one of my pregnant students asked a question that resonated with everyone: “How do I stay in my baby bubble with everything that’s going on in the world?”

Other women nodded. Some shared they were having physical reactions, triggers from certain people on the news, from images flooding their screens. The weight of global events was being felt in their bodies, in their pregnancies, in that sacred space they were trying to protect.

The Expectation to Stay Positive During Pregnancy

There’s this expectation in pregnancy culture, isn’t there? We’re supposed to stay positive. We’re told to only listen to positive birth stories, to repeat positive affirmations, to block out negativity from our lives, and to focus solely on our baby bubble.

And there’s a scientific reason for that guidance. What we consume during pregnancy affects our nervous system, our hormones, and ultimately our birth experience. (We explore this in depth in the Calm & Confident Mama hypnobirthing course, diving into how stress hormones impact labour and birth outcomes.)

Then there’s another expectation, especially in the second trimester, that you should be enjoying your pregnancy. That these are the “golden months.” That you should savour every moment because it goes so fast.

Listen, it’s okay if you’re not enjoying every moment. It’s okay if pregnancy feels hard, uncomfortable, or overwhelming, even without world events weighing on you.

And when you add in the heaviness of what’s happening globally? It can feel impossible to stay in that bubble.

You Don’t Have to Find the Balance

Here’s what I told my students, and what I want to tell you (though you may not agree with me): You don’t have to find a balance.

You, the pregnant mothers and new mothers in that sacred fourth trimester, you have permission to block it all out if that’s what you need. You can step back, you don’t have to be an activist right now, and you can focus only on yourself and your baby.

You can still care deeply. You can still take small actions within your capacity. What I’m saying is that you should absolutely avoid watching horrifying content that’s going to increase your anxiety, trigger your nervous system, and flood your body (and therefore your baby) with stress hormones.

Your job right now is not to fix the world. Your job is to grow or nurture a human being. And that is meaningful work in itself.

My Personal Approach to Activism as a Yoga Teacher and Mother

I want to be honest with you. This is a challenge for me too. I see what’s happening in the world, and it affects me deeply.

But I’ve made a conscious choice about what I share on my social media. I know that pregnant and postnatal women are following me, and I don’t want to add to the anxiety you’re already carrying. I don’t want to be one of those people on the news or on your feed who triggers you or makes it harder for you to stay in your bubble when that’s exactly what you need.

Instead, I practice my activism in other ways: through the choices I make, the values I teach my children, the way I show up in my community. And I encourage you to do the same, in whatever small ways feel manageable to you right now.

Let me be clear: I’m not denying the very real, very painful things happening in our world. What I am saying is that you don’t have to consume every image, every story, every update in order to care or to make a difference.

Understanding Our Brain’s Negativity Bias

Here’s something that might help you understand why this is so challenging: Where we see bad, there is always good. Always.

It’s just that the bad is louder than the good. It’s more dramatic. It attracts more views, more clicks, more engagement.

We see this pattern everywhere, not just in world news, but in birth stories too. A peaceful, straightforward birth gets a polite nod. But a dramatic birth? Everyone leans in.

It’s not because positive births don’t happen. It’s because our brains are wired to pay attention to threat, to drama, to survival stories.

This is evolutionary. Our brains have a negativity bias, a default setting designed to keep us safe. To survive, our ancestors had to be more alert to danger than to beauty.

But we’re not running from predators anymore. And we have to actively work to shift our brains out of this default negative setting and into a more balanced, peaceful state.

This is especially important right now for you.

Practical Ways to Curate Your Environment for Peace

We all know how algorithms work. The more you watch something, the more it feeds you similar content. Your social media feed becomes an echo chamber of whatever you’ve been consuming.

Here are practical steps to protect your baby bubble:

Curate your digital environment:

• Unfollow accounts that make you anxious
• Mute conversations that drain you
• Turn off news notifications
• Limit your screen time
• Surround yourself with content that nourishes you

This isn’t ignorance. This isn’t privilege. This is survival.

This is you recognizing that in order to bring a peaceful, regulated human being into this world, or to nurture the one you’ve just brought into it, you need to be peaceful and regulated yourself.

Protecting your peace is not selfish. Protecting your peace is one of the most important things you can do right now.

How Mothers Shape the Future Through Everyday Choices

Here’s what I truly believe: Mothers hold enormous power to shape the future.

Studies show that mothers generally control the majority of household spending. Mothers are often the primary decision-makers in children’s education, in what activities children participate in, in the values that are instilled at home.

Now, why does this matter?

Because every purchase you make is a vote for the kind of world you want to see. Every value you teach your child is planting seeds for how they’ll show up in the world. Every conversation you have, every boundary you set, every example you model, it all ripples out.

When you choose to support ethical companies, you’re voting with your wallet. When you teach your child empathy, you’re raising someone who will stand up for others. When you model emotional regulation, you’re creating an adult who can hold space for difficult feelings rather than reacting from fear or anger.

This is long-term activism. This is generational change.

And it starts with parents who have done their own inner work. Parents who are regulated. Parents who are at peace.

Dr. Shefali Tsabary says, “When we heal ourselves, we heal the world.” And I would add: When we birth consciously, when we parent consciously, we create conscious human beings.

A child who is born into peace, who is raised with attunement, who witnesses regulated adults navigating difficult emotions, that child becomes an adult who can hold space for others, who can respond rather than react, who can be part of the solution instead of perpetuating the problem.

Tools for Doing the Inner Work During Pregnancy

If you’re thinking, “Okay Krish, I understand this, but how do I actually do this inner work? How do I stay regulated when everything feels so heavy?”

This is actually why I do what I do. This is my way of creating positive change in the world.

One of the ways to do the inner work is through yoga. Not just the physical poses, but the practices that help you connect with your body, regulate your nervous system, and stay grounded in the present moment.

And if you’re preparing for birth, hypnobirthing is a method that can help you have an empowered birth experience, one where you trust your body, you trust the process, and you remain calm and in control even when things don’t go according to plan.

I want to be clear: this work is beyond yoga poses and birth plans. It’s about so much more than that.

It’s about putting the power back into mothers’ hands. It’s about you knowing that you have agency over your body, your birth, your choices. It’s about understanding that you don’t have to hand over your power to fear, to external circumstances, or to anyone else.

When a mother feels empowered, when she knows her capabilities, when she trusts herself, that changes everything. Not just for her, but for her child, for her family, for her community.

This is the work. This is the activism. This is how we create the change we want to see.

Your Permission to Protect Your Peace

If you’re in your baby bubble right now, whether you’re in your first, second, or third trimester of pregnancy, or in your fourth trimester postpartum, please know this: You have permission to stay there. You have permission to turn off the news. You have permission to focus on the miracle happening in your body or in your arms.

You are not being selfish. You are not being ignorant. You are doing deeply important work.

You are protecting your peace. You are growing or nurturing a human being. And you are planting seeds for the kind of world you want to see, one conscious choice at a time.

About the Author: Krish is a prenatal and postnatal yoga teacher, hypnobirthing instructor, and mother of four based in the Netherlands. She runs Krish Yoga Studio and hosts the Yoga, Bellies & Babies Podcast, supporting pregnant women and new mothers through evidence-based practices that honor women’s intuition and bodily wisdom.

Related Topics: pregnancy anxiety, baby bubble, fourth trimester, postpartum mental health, prenatal yoga, hypnobirthing, conscious parenting, maternal mental health, pregnancy wellness, birth preparation, empowered birth, nervous system regulation during pregnancy

Ready to find out what hypnobirthing can actually do for you?

Join the next Cam & Confident Mama Course