What Does It Mean When You Dream About Being Pregnant?

 Whether you are looking to get pregnant or on the fence about having kids, a dream about being pregnant can bring up lots of complicated emotions. Keep in mind that dreams are not necessarily any indication of what's to come. In fact, pregnancy dreams can be about something else entirely.

There are a variety of approaches to dream analysis that can help you get to the real meaning. “Psychotherapists including Alred Adler, Carl Jung, and Sigmund Freud all had different theories around dream analysis that were related to unconscious motivation, symbolic meaning, or unprocessed emotions,” says Michele Goldman, PhD, a psychologist with Columbia Health and media advisor to Hope for Depression Research Foundation.

Most scientists believe that dreaming is related to memory consolidation and dreams are the brain’s way of organizing itself. And some believe that dreams are filled with meaning, messages, and symbols. But dream interpretation is not an exact science—some suggest zooming in on the most vivid part of the dream is key, while others prefer to investigate the most symbolic part of the dream or the strongest emotion. Try paying attention to all three elements to understand what could be triggering your pregnancy visions at night, Gold says.

To help get you started, here's why you might be having pregnancy dreams lately, and what they could mean about what's going on in your life, according to experts.

1. You're really hoping to get pregnant soon.

For some people, pregnancy dreams are connected to the fact that the person is thinking a lot about having a baby in the near future, says Rafael Pelayo, MD, a clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine.

That’s probably not surprising: If someone desperately wants to be pregnant, dreams about pregnancy are their desires playing out in their dream world. Of course, it’s not likely that pregnancy dreams will freak you out if you’re actually trying to get pregnant, but they can make you feel discouraged or down if it's not happening outside of your dreams.

2. You have a fear of getting pregnant right now.

The more confusing scenario is when you dream that you’re carrying a child (or that you take a positive pregnancy test, perhaps) but you’re 100 percent not ready to think about babies and have never carried a baby. Or, maybe you’ve already had kids and you definitely don’t want more. In these cases, dreading a pregnancy or having anxiety about it might still mean the topic is on your mind in some capacity, so you may imagine it in your sleep (and it might feel more like a nightmare).

3. Something in your life triggered a memory of a past pregnancy.

These dreams may also be related to random memories about a past pregnancy of your own or someone else's, Dr. Pelayo says. If you’re dreaming about being pregnant and previously were at some point in your life, there’s a good chance that something in your day briefly reminded you of that. Say that you had bad morning sickness during your first pregnancy: Any time you feel a little nauseated during the day is a chance for your brain to remember that morning sickness and give you a dream about being pregnant.

A similar thing could happen if you eat one of the foods you once craved when you were pregnant, especially if it’s not something you typically eat (pickles and peanut butter, anyone?) Another example: You see someone with a baby, and even though you’re post-menopausal, that visual triggers your brain to remember your own pregnancy while you’re asleep.

So it’s up to you to sleuth out your true feelings once you wake up. Was this dream a sign from your subconscious that you’re either ready for kids or terrified that you’ll accidentally get pregnant, or was it just your brain dredging up some old memory?

4. You're "giving birth" in another way, like to a big project you've been working on.

Dreams about being pregnant might be about a different kind of birth, so to speak. “Pregnancy can be a metaphor for other kinds of creativity,” says Deirdre Barrett, PhD, a psychologist and author of The Committee of Sleep. Pregnancy dreams may represent your excitement around a creative project in your home or at work, she says. You’re “giving birth” to this project, in a sense, and that could show up in your dreams as a bump or baby.

There are also variations on this theme: Instead of being pregnant, you might dream about breastfeeding—and that dream could also be about “nurturing” a new project or goal, Barrett says.

5. You're taking care of someone IRL and it's draining you.

On the negative end of the spectrum, you might dream of caring for a new baby or breastfeeding because someone in your life is “sucking you dry,” Barrett notes. Do you have a friend who takes up all of your emotional space or is using you in other ways? This type of dream may be the way your brain is processing the situation you’re going through.

6. You're experiencing identity changes.

Pregnancy dreams could also be tied to identity changes, according to Goldman. This might be about desiring a shift, exploring a new identity, feeling stuck in your current identity, or taking on a new role. That's because being pregnant implies taking on a new identity of being a parent, especially if you've never been pregnant before.

7. You need to use the bathroom.

This one may seem a bit strange, but pregnancy dreams can also simply signal your need to pee. “This is a common way for the body during its sleep stage to alert the dreamer to their bladder being full,” says Goldman. If you sprint off to the bathroom as soon as you wake up, it's good bet that your dream might have just been pointing out this particular physical sensation in your body. The same can happen with stomach aches and pains too.

8. You're ready to be a part of something bigger than yourself.

Some people believe that dreaming about being pregnant has a significant spiritual meaning, such as readiness to connect to something larger than yourself. This can be a sign that your body and mind are ready to embrace a spiritual change. Consider in the dream how being pregnant made you feel (such as feeling connected to femininity, excited, grounded). This might guide you to understand what your dream was triggering and how to move forward.

When it comes down to it, dreams are kind of a tangled web of emotions and slivers of memories or scenes your brain has recorded.

“One of the things about dreams is that they’re loaded with emotions,” Dr. Pelayo says. Some sleep specialists suspect that dreams are a way for our brains to reset memories and emotions; we collect so many memories throughout our lives, memories that are often tied to emotion, that our brains eventually have to decide what to remember and what to forget. They also have to decide how to connect these memories together.

“The things that make you laugh, and especially the things that make you scared, the brain has to take this new information and connect it to prior memories that you have,” Dr. Pelayo explains. “This connecting of old memories with new memories is done offline in the dreaming world.”

No matter what you dream about, it's ultimately up to you how you interpret it.

A little recap: “Babies can represent the new: new endeavors, new relationships,” Barrett says. “Or, they can represent the vulnerable or immature part of the dreamer.” For another individual, pregnancy or babies in a dream could be a clue to something as straightforward as a desire for a child.

“Only the dreamer's own associations can tell exactly what the dream symbol means in a particular case,” she says. So ask yourself, Do I wish for this or fear this? What in my waking life feels like the baby in the dream? This can help you dissect what it might mean (if it means anything at all).

Are pregnancy dreams really bothering you? Consider grabbing a pen and starting a dream journal. Eventually, you may be able to spot patterns between your real-life emotions and your dreams and better interpret the significance.