If you’re preparing for pregnancy, you’re probably reading pregnancy magazines to learn about the physical and emotional changes that are in store for the nine months of gestation. Movie lovers can decode each trimester using the following guide that translates the biological details under the umbrella of classic films. Who knew that all those hours spent watching film noir and spaghetti westerns could actually bolster pregnancy research?
The Big Sleep
This famed adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s hardboiled crime novel starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall is the epitome of intrigue and mystery – two factors that define the first trimester of pregnancy. Doctors begin counting the weeks in pregnancy from the date of the mother’s last period, so during the first month most women are unaware that they’re carrying an unborn baby. The first sign is usually a late period, which sends ladies into the detective stage as they purchase a batch of home pregnancy tests to get to the bottom of the case.
Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock’s landmark film captures the duality of Norman Bates, whose split personality terrorizes all who visit his motel. By the time you’ve entered the second trimester of pregnancy, you may be experiencing dramatic mood changes quickly shifting from elation to sullenness. The hormone changes your body is experiencing can send your emotions into a tailspin, leaving those around walking on egg shells as they try to avoid approaching you during one of your irritable phases.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The last trimester of pregnancy is a speedy plummet toward the arrival of your baby, which may leave you ecstatic for your little one’s arrival, anxious about being a parent and petrified of what the delivery process is going to do to your body. But just like Sergio Leone’s masterpiece, “good” triumphs in the end.