How do you get over pregnancy announcements?

It's just incredibly difficult. I can't have children and never will, it's just so hard, some days and some announcements are easier than others sometimes quite randomly. If I feel prepared/know it's likely to be coming it feels easier than when it's a total shock.

It took me over 5 years. One thing I realised quite early on in my journey was that I might never succeed and I needed to be able to envision a good life without children to stop the lack of them seeming so devastating. So I regularly spent time day dreaming about good things that would be better without children. Foreign holidays and two seater sports cars. Sundays in bed with DH. Evenings out on the spur of the moment. Weekends away with friends. Volunteering abroad for a year. Stuff I knew we’d have to give up on or cut right back on if I did get pregnant. I’m pretty pragmatic anyway, so maybe it wasn’t to do with this. But I credit it with increasing my resilience and helping me be happy when it looked like nothing was going work. It can be hard to do at first if you aren’t used to forcing yourself to put thoughts aside and think about something else. And it takes time to develop ideas that become familiar enough to slip into to distract you from other thoughts. But it may be worth a try.

Been over 3 years for us and it's just exhausting.

My husbands sister recently had a baby and the level of resentment I feel makes me feel physically sick with myself. I can't find it in me to be happy for her and I hate myself for it.

Please don't feel bad for feeling this way. It's hard, really really hard, dealing with pregnancy announcements, and I would often end up in floods of tears after finding out someone was pregnant whilst I was still struggling. I would unfollow friends on social media because I couldn't handle seeing their excited posts about being pregnant. It was such a hard time for me.

I eventually managed to have two children after years and years of fertility struggles, but even now I still get that same pang of upset/envy when I see a pregnancy announcement, which sounds silly, but I suppose it was such a strong and immediate response for such a long time (7 years) that it is now ingrained in me, just like the sadness I get when my period turns up (even though I am not trying for any more children and haven't had sex for months).

Sending big hugs, you're definitely not being mean and it's completely normal that you would feel this way. My situation is slightly different in that I had a missed miscarriage last year and then it seemed like everyone I knew was suddenly getting pregnant. I had to unfollow quite a few people on FB because I couldn't bear to see their scan pics and updates about their pregnancies. It's so hard hearing other people's good news when it's the one thing you want most in the world. I found The Worst Girl Gang Ever group and page really helpful. They post a lot about TTC and all the difficult emotions that come with it.

I can't say I know exactly what you're going through as I do already have one dc, however I have struggled for 10 years to get pregnant again due to PCOS and pregnancy induced endometriosis.

I'm grateful for my dd and you're absolutely not mean or wrong for feeling the way you do, its hard watching someone else's bump grow.
I don't on what to say to make you feel any better or to not sound patronising, but I hope it happens for you one day.

It is so hard, and I don’t really have any decent suggestions I’m sorry. It does kind of take the edge off it a little bit to remind myself that there isn’t a set number of babies allocated to each month/year, so them having one has no impact on whether I’ll ever get to have mine, but sometimes nothing really helps. I do find I’m much less bothered when I know they’ve had a tough journey to motherhood as well, and I guess with celebrities we don’t always know so it can seem like it was easy for them when maybe it wasn’t.

You’re allowed to feel like this, it doesn’t make you a bad person, life can seem really unfair sometimes. Just don’t let it eat you up if you can help it…

As someone who took three years to get pregnant I get it. Pregnancy seems to be everywhere. I had times where it was just irritating and times when it was devastating.

I didn’t find announcements hard like you do, but just seeing babies out, being asked if I wanted kids, internet algorithms marketing fertility treatments and Clearblue products at me because I’m a woman in my thirties…

I know this doesn’t answer your question. But it’s a burning feeling of being constantly reminded of the thing you want the most and it heartbreaking. Just wanted to say you’re not alone and wishing you all the luck in the world in whatever path you take next.

It takes years and years. In my case, it took for friends who had met their partners, moved in, decided to have a baby, then move on to their 2nd/3rd before I started to think, this might not happen for me, and I am aggrieved all the time, and I had to almost move past the want for a baby, by that point I must have been 8 or 9 years I'm to my struggles to conceive #2.

I'm so sorry you're going through this, it really is so painful and it doesn't make you sound mean. It makes you sound like you are struggling to go through something, and you probably feel quite alone because at times it feels like the whole world and their mother is pregnant and you can't escape it, and it's the thing you want most, but can't have for yourself.
I'm so sorry

I’ve never been in your position....but I don’t think it makes you ‘mean’.... you can’t help how you feel.....hope you get some helpful responses