To ask what ridiculous things people have said to you in pregnancy/parenthood?

I was about 7 months pregnant and bumped into an ex teacher who asked me if I knew who the father was????

My much loved grandmother died unexpectedly just before my due date. My delightful fucking sister said ‘it’s because you’re having a baby; someone always dies when a baby is born’. She still doesn’t know how close she came to actual physical violence from me.

That is just absolutely appalling. I'm so very sorry. I would want to smack that person.

Me too. Usually framed as 'Have you thought about having another?'

I had no idea just thinking was all it required.

I'm cheating, because this was after a round of IVF where the embryos weren't viable, but it hurt:

'If you are upset about something like this, what would you be like about a six month miscarriage?' (I'd had four miscarriages; he knew that.)

'I don't think you should try again if they're going to be abnormal.'

Just now (I'm 11 weeks pregnant), one of the grandmothers at the school gate heard my friend ask me how my scan went (I had to have a scan at the early pregnancy unit because I was bleeding). 'In my generation we didn't talk about it until three months; haven't you thought that something bad might happen?' No shit, really?

My beloved, planned, much-wanted DD isn't my biological daughter and you would not believe the number of people who said stupid things when her mother and I split up. We have her 50/50 and I was her main carer for most of her childhood. 'So will you still see her at all' and 'It's so nice her mother still lets her visit' were among my favourites.

I've been told this !

This was many years ago when I was expecting my DD in 1983. Made by my MIL who had form for inappropriate/stupid remarks. Apparently the reason I was suffering from such awful morning (all day) sickness was because I had the heating turned up too high, in the middle of December. Righty ho.

A student doctor asked me when I got the burns on my very pregnant belly. They were stretch marks from my previous pregnancy 😳

"You don't want to breastfeed love, you won't be able to go anywhere"

Having just one child is risky. If anything God forbid happens and i loose my child, i will have no one and could end up with no kids when i get old. It stuck with me and always terrifies me

I had a few, one (childless) friend asked if I thought giving ff a dummy would make dd more likely to be a smoker when she’s older

I also mentioned to another childless friend when dd was 5/6yo that I was taking her to macdonalds for a treat and she looked at me and said when I have children they won’t ever go in a macdonalds and I certainly wouldn’t call it a treat 🙈😂

Much less distressing than some of these, so sorry some of you have had such insensitive comments at difficult times. But my personal favourite is 'enjoy every minute'... Does anybody actually enjoy changing pooey nappies? Or waking up every 2 hours all night?

Slightly different for me but my 4th baby was born with a cleft lip and had to have multiple operations. With all his operations i had family members constantly asking if i had a date yet. With his first operation it was obvious he was going to need an operation so i had complete strangers peering into the pram and asking me when he was going to have an operation to "fix him". Also so many people were shocked that the midwife wouldn't just sew up his lip in the delivery room. Which i thought was an insult to ds's highly skilled surgeon who has so far taken 10 hours over 3 operations to get ds looking as he does. Several people were shocked that i had taken ds out of the house before his lip repair operation and even more people disapprove of the photo we proudly display of him taken just before his first operation.

My mum this week, to me and my sister (both emergency sections at 7cm/8cm) I’m currently pregnant- you went for the easy route and didn’t have real labour like me, I done the hard work!

“What will you do if this one also has Down Syndrome?” As in will I keep or terminate my pregnancy - asked by someone I had met about 5 mins earlier, while my beautiful little girl with Down syndrome was right beside me. Prick.

Four weeks after having my first daughter, my mum said I was fat. 17 years and that still stings, she still makes comments about my weight now but I tend to ignore her completely. 2 kids later, married to my best friend in the world and in my mid forties. No longer care what she thinks

The breastfeeding zealots got to me. I tried with my first, but I couldn't produce much milk (health visitor told me that was rubbish), they told me I had to keep going. I stopped after 3 weeks and my MH had deteriorated (it seemed to bring on a hormonal reaction where I became very depressed). Before having my 2nd, I researched the drug I've been on my whole adult life. In the papers published about it, not only did they say it causes a lack of milk production but that you should not breastfeed while taking it as it is passed to the baby and can cause liver problems for them.

“You’re being a drama queen - Braxton Hicks don’t hurt” said by a childless friend - well actually they’re bloody uncomfortable at times, so butt out!

I was told when pregnant I shouldn’t wear black as it would harm the baby!

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard “ I couldn’t do it “ about looking after my disabled child , as if there’s any choice !

ive also had people openly say it must be because I had her at 37 - there’s less than 100 people in the world with her disorder , and lots of older mums out there so no I don’t think so , it’s an inherited genetic disease nothing to do with the mums age , but thanks !

My DH has a twin sister. Whenever it comes up in conversation with people we don't know, the first question is always 'are you identical?'. Lovely DH just patiently says 'no'.

When I was pregnant with my oldest is was young and didn't know what to expect. I got a sarky nurse say to another "they expect a written invitation " when I wasn't sure how the blood test system worked at the hospital and didn't go in the correct place or something. A consultant rolled eyes at me when I went to an appointment and didn't know what it was for so suggested it was because my dad died young of a heart attack ( meaning they didn't know if I had inherited anything dodgy from him)
The midwife when I gave birth told me off for screaming as my very large headed son crowned. I tore badly and was in the 7th layer of hell gor a brief moment so screamed as he came out, I heard her through my screams saying "no need to scream!"