As soon as the word gets out that you are expecting a precious little bundle, the torrential downpour of well-meaning, sometimes misplaced or misinformed advice begins hailing down on you and your innocent journey toward motherhood. Lest you suffer needlessly, your friends and family are going to make sure you know every home remedy known to man for morning sickness, back pain, foot swelling, headaches, and hip pain. Like it or not, the crowds will comment every time they see you lift something heavier than a standard sized envelope. Don’t even think about skipping breakfast unless you want three lectures on the importance of getting enough to eat for you and your baby.
In case you were wondering, the purpose of this blog has nothing to do with practical ways to handle unwanted advice, or how to eliminate it. Unfortunately for you, there will always be too many experts touting their wisdom when it comes to pregnancy. What I hope to achieve instead, is to assure you that you are not alone in your frustration. Every pregnant woman out there loses her privacy for 9 months while perfect strangers begin to stick their noses where they don’t belong, all in the name of good advice. I hope to have made you laugh as you sit back and ponder the strange nature of our culture’s obsession with pregnancy. What exactly leads everyone to believe they are the expert on pregnancy? Experience? I have driven a car for over a decade, but I’m far from becoming a mechanic. I have eaten approximately 30,000 meals in my lifetime, but that doesn’t make me a dietitian. A quarter of those meals I have cooked, but that doesn’t make me a chef. It’s interesting how having a baby suddenly makes one an expert on pregnancy.
Describe a time when you received some unwanted advice. What did the person say to you?