Comparing your reality to picture-perfect pregnancy accounts and feeling like you're failing because you don't look, feel, or act the way they do.

Forcing green smoothies and 'clean eating' when you can barely keep water down.

Saying cringy affirmations in the mirror like, "I am glowing and radiant" when you're exhausted, nauseous, and feel about as far from glowing as it's possible to be.

Loving every change in your body and feeling solely grateful 24/7. (Like seriously... Is that even real?!)

Thinking self love is a luxury for when things calm down, or that it's a feeling you either naturally have or don't have.

Arrogantly focusing on yourself when you "should be focused on growing your baby."

Assuming self-love is something you'll get to once you feel better about yourself — without realising it's actually the thing that gets you there.

The unglamorous, private practice of being on your own side — no audience required.

Eating the fries, the pizza, the whatever-you-can-stomach — and calling that an act of care, not a failure.

Catching the voice in your head that says you're not doing enough, and choosing NOT to believe everything it tells you.

Knowing that the way you speak to yourself DOES matter. It shapes the way your baby will speak to themselves. Even right now, your emotions are passed on to them in the womb.

Recognising that self-love is the practice you need most when things feel hardest.

Quietly refusing to abandon yourself in the middle of growing a human; feeling empowered, not guilty about that.

Starting exactly where you are, feeling exactly how you feel — because self-love isn't the destination. It's how you make the journey survivable — and it's built one small, imperfect but compassionate choice at a time.