There are a lot of things that women look forward to when they find out they are pregnant. The excitement and joy of bringing a baby into the world is a lot for new moms, especially those who are first-time mothers. One thing, however, that women definitely do not look forward to is being told things about their pregnancy by people who have no idea what they are talking about — especially when that information comes from men.
Recently, women on Reddit began sharing the times they were “mainsplained” things about their pregnancy and oh my gosh, it’s a lot to take in.
One woman said a random man tapped her on the shoulder to tell her about her first trimester.
“Man touches my shoulder, puffs out his chest and offers the pearl of wisdom ‘What happens in the first trimester, is your stomach will actually stretch! And your muscles will pull apart so you have to be really careful’ I just blinked at him and walked away because I couldn’t even, I didn’t even ask him a question, there was no context to this,” she wrote.
That’s definitely awkward.
Another said that her coworker thought she was ‘shaking her baby.’
“I had a coworker stop me dead in my tracks when I was playing with kids. We did 10 jumping jacks and he look me dead in the eyes and told me ‘STOP! You are shaking the baby.’
I thought he was joking. Nope, he was dead serious and legitimately pissed that I would endanger my baby by shaking her violently,” she said.
Wow!
One woman said her supervisor wanted to know her ‘scheduled’ delivery date.
“My favorite was my supervisor asking me when my ‘scheduled’ delivery date was. I was, like, um… somewhere around such and such date.
Him: No the date you are going to the hospital.
Me: When I go into labor? Best guess is…
Him: No, you schedule it ahead of time.
Me: That’s not how it works.
Him: Yes it is.
Me: …”
Another woman was told she shouldn’t be having morning sickness.
“I was about 7 or 8 weeks pregnant on my 3rd (current) pregnancy and so sick I couldn’t eat. I was throwing up and nauseous all the time. DH mentioned it to his friend and his friend goes, ‘It’s too early for her to have morning sickness,” she wrote.
A coworker actually lectured one woman on her eating tuna during her pregnancy.
“I can’t even make this one up. With my second baby, I came into work to find 4 post-it notes from a male coworker on my desk next to a can of tuna fished from my trash can.
The post-its were a long rambling warning about how tuna contained mercury and I shouldn’t be eating it at all and he wanted to make sure I was aware of the danger. It also let me know he had emailed my spouse (who worked in a different division) a list of things I shouldn’t eat so that he could keep an eye on it,” she said.
One woman was told ‘not to play sports’ because it could hurt the baby.
“My friend told me I shouldn’t play catch (passing a baseball back and forth) anymore with my husband because it was too dangerous. He actually said, ‘What if the ball hits the baby?’
I was in my first trimester. The baby was the size of a bean, and I’m pretty sure if the ball hit my tummy at that point the worst that would have happened is an errant fart from all the [first trimester] bloating,” she wrote.
One man thought he knew why women are ‘overdue’ to give birth.
“The best one I got was from a guy at work, speaking from his VAST experience of a father of two.
‘Women only go overdue because they are too stressed/anxious about the baby. If all they do is relax they wouldn’t go overdue,'” she shared.
Yeah, SURE!
A woman’s boss thought that he now had a medical degree.
“Yesterday my boss commented on the fact that I’m taking anti nausea meds (Zofran during the day if needed and diclegis at night) to basically say why am I taking meds and I should ‘let nature take its course.’ He said that last part again after I explained I would not be working or functioning were I not on meds, they are 2 meds that are pregnancy safe, etc.
I was so mad for a few hours after that,” she wrote.
Yeah, I would be mad, too!
One guy stuck his head into a conversation he was obviously not invited it.
“I was talking to a coworker about something completely unrelated to pregnancy while a guy we had just hired seemed to be minding his own business staring at his computer screen. I had only met him once and never really talked to him. Out of nowhere he turned to me and said, ‘Did you know that pregnant women’s brains shrink?'” she said.
Right, sure, that’s how it happens.
One woman said she was told to stop drinking soda entirely.
“I drank a can of coca-cola, my one and only can because of caffeine and I was craving it, my coworker came over and poured it down the sink because it will ‘turn my baby into an addict’. I was fuming,” she wrote.
This one, definitely, takes the cake.
“I had a guy tell me that tooth infection pain is worse than labor. I’m sure it is for some women but they have no say. My labor was the worst pain in my life. Over any broken bone, nerve pain, or any of my chronic pain bc I have fibro. Tooth pain is definitely in the top 5 but for me, it doesn’t top,” she added.
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Amen, sister!
h/t: Reddit
