People are very fond of discussing the future of motherhood and all the difficulties, joys, and oddities that it brings. And still, they often behave as if expectant mothers are creatures from another planet, about the features of whose life nothing is known and to which the usual rules of behavior do not apply.
The VOICE.com writer is on a boil and wants everyone to remember these few simple things.
1. Pregnancy is not a reason for others to forget decorum and behave unceremoniously.
For example, touching a pregnant woman without asking for a stomach. This is not a patty on the buffet, you can not take it when you want. It’s still part of someone else’s body, not the public domain. If you want to touch it, ask (I won’t allow it anyway).
2. For God’s sake, refrain from commenting on how my figure looks.
-That’s the belly! Looks like you have twins.
-Judging by the shape of the belly, it must be a boy!
-What is your term – already eight months?! I wouldn’t even know you were pregnant if I didn’t know!
Some people think that the expectant mother can be discussed like an animal in a zoo: “Wow, that’s a tail! And what ears, look. And a pink belly. You will be surprised, but no one is pleased when people speak out about his body – whether they are curious friends, relatives, or strangers in the clinic.
3. No, I don’t want to hear about how terrible your friend’s birth went.
What? Her contractions lasted 86 hours, and then she had to urgently do a cesarean, and the stewardess and the veterinarian at the food warehouse in a godforsaken village operated on her with a plastic spoon, using vodka for sterilization and anesthesia?
No, I don’t need to know.
4. Don’t tell me: “Oh, how cool! You can eat whatever you want!”
This is not true. The myth that pregnancy is a crazy 9-month marathon of eating whatever your heart desires need to be debunked. Of course, I will make a sensational report now, but in the first months of pregnancy, many women suffer from toxicosis and are too sick to eat normally.
And a child is growing inside you, which takes up more and more space, and you cannot afford to fill your stomach to capacity. And while some women develop an irresistible craving for weird food, others can’t even look at it and are ready to kill whoever pulled a raw chicken out of the freezer (Put it away! I can’t see that!).
And even if the expectant mother feels good, she should not overeat with rolls. Doctors say if you’re at a normal weight, you don’t need extra calories in the first trimester. In the second trimester, it is recommended to receive 340 additional calories per day, in the third – about 450.
5. Pregnancy is insanely exhausting.
So don’t complain that you stayed up at a party until 1 and then got up for work by 9. You didn’t have to get your swollen, aching body out of bed every half hour throughout the night to go to the toilet, so you have no idea What “tired and not getting enough sleep.”
6. Please keep your valuable opinions about epidurals, cesarean sections, breastfeeding, home births, etc. to yourself.
Surely you have the most interesting and compelling point of view on any of these controversial, hotly debated issues of childbearing. I’m too sick of the sight of raw chicken to listen.
7. I want to write even when I just did it.
So get in position, give up your aisle seat, or let employees use the restroom. People think the whole point is that the baby is pressing on the bladder. This is also true. But in fact, the constant desire to urinate begins early, in the first trimester, even before the stomach has grown. Therefore, please, even if the woman is still at the time when “nothing is noticeable”, do not stand in her way to the toilet.
8. Yes, we want to get on the transport.
In the subway, you often hear a whisper: “What if she is not pregnant?” Don’t worry, you can always offer and she can always say, “No, thanks.” It is better to give way to a lady with an extra piece of cake in her stomach than not to give way to one who is expecting a baby. In this position, finally sitting down is such a relief that a visitor to the most amazing spa even could not even dream of.
Editorial Team
