Dreaming about a baby while you are pregnant happens because you are adapting to the new responsibility that the new baby will bring, you are preparing yourself mentally for the mega task of bringing a child into the world and then raising it to the best of your ability. It is no wonder that many women experience nightmares during pregnancy, your dreams are helping you to adapt and face your fears so that when the time comes you have already begun to toughen up.
1. In other women's dreams a baby may express (unconscious) desire for a baby.
2. The baby may represent your own vulnerability, or your need for love. This applies to both men and women. When the 'baby' within you - the hurt, frustrated self - cries out, it is very difficult to look at yourself objectively, but an effort must be made to see this frightened or rejected child as a part of yourself that needs your love. It may be that this self-pitying part of you is crying out for another person's love, but in the first place, at least, the love must be given by you: you (the conscious, decision-making ego) must positively love yourself (the sensitive, hurt 'child' within your psyche). Only that way will the child in you grow up and mature.
3. A baby may symbolize your pure, innocent, true self: what you really are - or were intended to be - as distinct from what various kinds of conditioning and wrong choices have made you.
4. The baby may represent some new development in your personality or in your personal life.
The vulnerable infant found in our dream suckling or crying, perhaps hungry, is a clear description of our own fragile inner selves. Some deficiency in our life now requires immediate gratification in the form of care and especially attention. This Unconscious dramatization was referred to as ‘The ID’ by Sigmund Freud. When situations in our waking life become overbearing and overly complicated we have a tendency and outright desire to revert back to our child-like self; sometimes, in the form of a baby. This is primarily because a baby’s needs are meticulously taken care of by an outside force, namely the mother. This shift from responsibility to dependence, occurs quite often in the human psyche as a defence mechanism against difficult decision-making and stressful environments. This regression is especially subject to individuals who fear for the well being of their own loved ones. Instead of rising to the threat of a fearsome external world, the dreamer regresses into himself in an effort to avoid realistic consequences. The dreamer must gain confidence in his ability and durability in the waking world. The baby can be viewed as ones own innocence. In that scenario the baby is tranquil and content. In his simple way, he or she seems to possess faith in life itself.
To see a baby swimming on its own is a way for you to recognize that something quite small can actually stay afloat and carry on without too much input from outside. This might be appropriate for a small business that can survive through difficult times for example. This symbol could also be used to symbolize someone who is treated like a child even though they are more than able to support themselves.
