Once someone is noticeably pregnant they tend to be the object of attention of many a passing stranger. Whilst the stares can be a little unsettling, most people harmlessly just want to talk about your pregnancy. Which when I think about it, is nice that people are taking an interest.
But herein lies the rub to all this well-intentioned curiosity. Imagine every day that you step out your front door and venture out into the world. Every single time you are asked, and by no less the same people, “Are you over it?” Naturally they are referring to the pregnancy, and of course the question is intended with the best of intentions. It is showing interest, concern, and providing me an opportunity to express myself, but… When you have to answer the question every week, sometimes a few times a week depending how often you visit the green grocer, understandably you can feel your inner furnace going into high burn.
I have about two months to go with my pregnancy, and everything has been going swimmingly. No complications, and any discomforts that naturally coincide with being pregnant I take in my stride. In fact that has become my staple response to the are-you-over-it question — “Taking it in my stride”. The only problem is, by the fact that I am writing an essay about this I am clearly not really taking the question in my stride. Would I feel better if the question being asked were simply “How are you doing?”
Perhaps it’s a female instinct to think that we all just want an opportunity to complain. My saying this may be a presumption but I only suspect this, because I often meet mothers whose eyes light up and excitedly talk about their favourite horror pregnancy tales. Truly someone once said to me “Oh, I love swapping horror labour stories”. I usually end up disappointing these people because the arrival of my first child was normal and without complication — it was a perfectly normal experience.
All in all, I am appreciating being pregnant. It is not always an experience that every woman can have in her lifetime. Knowing this gives me all the more reason to slow down and simply enjoy being pregnant. So putting things into to perspective perhaps I can extend this feeling enough to not be upset the next time someone asks me “Are you over it?”
