Regardless of your ethnicity, heritage, or spirituality, there are some traditions you may want to create all on your own. For instance, if you haven't been as close as you would like to be with your parents, siblings, or other members of your family, perhaps the occasion of your pregnancy is a good opportunity to reconnect. Perhaps you can host Sunday dinners at your home, or take turns visiting and sharing family stories. If you live far away, it can be a good time to start e-mailing more often, sharing everything from how you're feeling to images from your most recent ultrasound.

Heal Family Rifts

Sometimes news of a pregnancy is just what's needed to bring estranged relatives back together, united in a common cause that's bigger than any disagreement or misunderstanding that might have gotten out of hand months or even years ago. Often, babies bring with them good news, peaceful feelings, and even hope for the future — all necessary ingredients for healing family troubles. Of course, for deeper troubles or more seriously dysfunctional family issues, it's best to consult with a counselor or clergy to work things out; healing major rifts is way too much expectation to put on a new baby.

Reach a New Understanding

Likewise, the prospect of a new baby may cause you to reexamine your relationship with your own parents, healing any issues you may have with them and bringing you to a new understanding of their motivations as parents when you were growing up. In other words, now that you're a parent-to-be, you might finally understand why your own parents said and did some of the things they did during your childhood, and that can take you to a very good place mentally and spiritually.

Open Yourself to the Possibilities

You're creating a whole new life on the planet, and that calls for you to open yourself up to fantastic new opportunities. Pregnancy does more than change your life. It also changes all of your important relationships, allowing you a new and special opportunity to heal, to grow, and to move forward toward a greater sense of unity and connection to all mankind. In this new phase of your life, you have become part of a world that is much bigger than you ever imagined. Welcome aboard!