People Share The Absolute Worst Things Someone Said To Them During Their Pregnancy, And It Hurt Me To Read These
As if pregnancy isn't hard enough, pregnant people are usually forced to field unwanted questions and advice, sometimes from complete strangers.
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I asked the BuzzFeed Community to share the weirdest thing someone told them during their pregnancy, and they did not disappoint. Here are a few new additions to entertain/enrage you:
1."I have two children, and with both of my pregnancies, I carried the baby high. Like, their head or butt was always right under my ribs. I have one boy and one girl. And yet, with both of my pregnancies, people would come up to me and say, 'I can tell you’re having a boy (or a girl) because you’re carrying high!' Nope, had one of each and carried them both high. The more that I think about it, the more ridiculous it seems that the baby’s gender would dictate that."
2."When pregnant with my son, I had a woman in the line at Subway ask why I wasn't having meat in my sandwich. I'm vegetarian, but whatever. She then touched my bump and said, 'Oh, that's a boy,' then proceeded to lift up the back of my long jacket, pat my ass, and said, 'Oh no...a girl.' I was so bewildered I didn't say anything, but my sister was ON IT. I think she and that woman are the first and last people to be forcibly ejected from that Subway on a Tuesday afternoon."
3."People tell you their really traumatic birth stories as if you're not already terrified! I was working as a teacher when pregnant with my first, and one mom gave me a blow-by-blow of her three labors saying of them, they 'ripped her from front to back.'"
—Anonymous, 31, UK
4."After 18 hours of labor, during my first pregnancy with little progression, I was rushed into an emergency c-section around midnight. I delivered my healthy beautiful girl, but when I got wheeled into recovery, they immediately removed the 'port' in my back for the epidural. As you can imagine, the pain that came crashing down on me after that traumatic experience of labor, PLUS, you know, major abdominal surgery, was really scary. I remember that I started to cry, and I asked the nurse why it hurt so bad already. I didn’t expect to feel so much pain from my surgery right away. This lady looked me dead in the eyes, I kid you not, and said, 'Honey, I really think a lot of this is in your head. You need to calm down.' I. Was. Shocked. After what I had just endured, do you really think THAT was what I needed to hear?"
5."A therapist told me that being depressed during pregnancy made it more likely that my child would be gay. Needless to say, that was our last session."
6."My husband’s aunt told me at a funeral that I 'had the unfortunate angles of always looking like I was carrying triplets.' I was five months pregnant with my second, my husband is a foot taller than me, and yes, our babies tend to be big. But come on, you still don’t say that."
7."My 'father-in-law' called me an orca and other whale references during my pregnancy and was constantly ill. I’ve had weight problems my whole life before this, and this was NOT helpful."
8."I was pregnant last year and had so many people tell me I hardly looked pregnant at all. I know they thought they were complimenting me, but my baby had a two-vessel cord (and not growing at the correct rate can be a complication from that), so it just made me scared that my baby wasn’t growing."
9."I have two boys, and my sister-in-law said, 'So, are you going to try for a girl? I'd love a niece!' This was two weeks after I'd given birth."
10."Just yesterday I got the following: 'If you’re only three months along, why are you cradling your stomach so much? There’s barely anything even in there yet, so what are you trying to protect?' Well, I’ve had two miscarriages already, I just spent a week in the hospital for bleeding, and there isn’t much I can do to protect my baby at this point. But if holding my stomach makes me feel a little calmer about my baby’s health, then yes, I will cradle my stomach. Fuck you, did I ask you to cradle it? I spend every second of my days mortified that I’ll lose my baby a third time, so naturally, my hand goes there to help calm me down."
11."I was told the cat will sleep on my baby's face because apparently baby faces are the comfy spot in the house, or the cat will drink all the baby's milk. I was told the baby will eat clumps of cat hair because apparently I never vacuum. I was also told that she'll attack the baby out of jealousy and will scratch the baby just to drink the baby's blood. My cat had exactly ZERO interest in my daughter until she was big enough to start feeding her treats, and even then, the cat wouldn't get too close."
12."I was pregnant with my second and had hyperemesis gravidarum. I was sick the whole pregnancy, just like Kate Middleton. As a result, I had lost about 15 pounds to date. At a recent appointment, I was getting my weight check perusal and feeling pretty great at 30 weeks, considering. I hopped off the scale, and the nurse, while updating my chart, turned and said, 'Oh, you’re one of the lucky ones losing weight while pregnant.' I politely pointed out that I had HG and had been throwing up every day, multiple times a day, for the entire pregnancy, and that I wouldn’t call it luck. The look on her face..."
13."That if I wore black clothing anytime during my pregnancy, my baby would be followed around in life with bad energy."
—Anonymous, 30, Florida
14."I had my oldest daughter at 18 and got a lot of people asking how old I was and if my baby's father was still in the picture. When I had my second daughter at 21, strangers would ask if my kids had the same father (they do, and we were married at the time), as though it was any of their business whatsoever."
15."When I told my sister I was pregnant with twins, her response was, 'You know, sometimes the second baby disappears by the next ultrasound.' I was flabbergasted. Who says that?!"
16."I was in the elevator of a building when an old man with a cane said, 'What are we having?' I asked, 'We?!' He said, 'It's okay, I'm a doctor.' I was not having this shit, so I said, 'How's your dick working? Are you peeing okay? Getting it up? It's okay, I'm a doctor.' He shut up really fast."
17."After the OBGYN confirmed my pregnancy, I told the worker at the desk that she'll see me more often. Her response: 'Oh, you know, so much can happen!'
18."When I announced my pregnancy at work, a coworker asked if I do any sports. I said I liked to go running, but I don't. Another coworker then gave me a rant about me killing my baby and went, 'Everyone knows that running kills babies.' The same coworkers told me some weeks later at our Christmas party that I can have a glass of wine."
19."When I was super pregnant with my first, a cashier at Walgreens told me (word for word), 'If you want to have that baby, go have sex with your husband and make sure he hits it from behind.'"
20."When we told my nana I was pregnant, she paused for a moment and said, 'Aren't you supposed to be saving money?' I don't know where this came from; we both worked and had a comfortable living situation and had never discussed our plans with anyone regarding children or money! She continued to comment on this and didn't say she was happy for us or anything of that nature. She is obsessed with my son now, and when I got pregnant with my second, she said, 'Whats going to happen to my poor baby boy?!' There's no pleasing anyone."
—Anonymous, 31, UK
21."I had SO many people ask if I was going to breastfeed. I also got asked if I was having a c-section. Even now, I would just never think to ask someone that. Who cares? Why would you want to know? Even now that I’ve been through it, I’ve made a personal vow to never give unsolicited advice to a pregnant woman. It’s just so unnecessary and annoying."
22."A friend of mine kept telling me how much my husband and I will fight after the baby is born. She and her husband fought when their son was born, but she is the type of person to pick fights with anyone. My husband and I were, and still are, stressed, but we hardly ever fight. It really annoyed me because my husband and I are not argumentative people. For her to make the assumption we would be screaming at each other after our baby was born just because she did just really rubbed me the wrong way."
23."I was already a week overdue, and my mom asked if I could hold off giving birth a little longer because she might have jury duty. I want to believe she was trying to be funny…but that’s not her style."
24."I was getting out of my car after listening to pop punk loudly. A middle-aged man told me, 'You should listen to happier music if you want a happy baby.'"
25."I was hospitalized at six weeks pregnant with hyperemesis and remained sick up until I gave birth. Too many times I was told, 'Well, at least you had fun GETTING pregnant!' Uh, no. It took nearly two years of fertility treatment, and I had a lengthy and traumatic miscarriage during that time. I’m lucky that all the physical and emotional pain was worth it in the end, but I will never do it again."
26."There is a 21-year age difference between my dad and my aunt, and they're my grandmother’s only biological children. According to her, the number of people who told her that because it had been so long between births it was like starting over was astounding. Her coworkers and some relatives would describe childbirth in graphic detail, and every time she’d say that she’d given birth before, they would say that it was so long ago and so much has changed. I’m pretty sure the process of pushing a human being out of you is the same as 20 years ago, even now."
27."Not advice but a facepalm moment nonetheless: After finding out I was pregnant with identical twins, a random stranger asked if they had the same father."
—Anonymous, 35, Texas
