What did she want people to do?

[SkivingSnackboxes]

Recently went to spectate at a sporting event and we got on the tram to get there. It was rammed, we expected it to be rammed. It's a busy event.

The tram was standing room only, and it was busy Ie sardines.

This pregnant woman was standing in the middle of the aisle she wouldn't move further down so there was a huge gap behind her. She didn't look that pregnant tbh, she kept shouting. im pregnant, I need space, you all need to back off, I'm pregnant I need a seat im pregnant I can't be touched
The only people sat down were kids and old people and the families didn't offer her a seat. The guard came down and told her she needed to move down into the gap or get off. She decided to get off and then asked if the trams were going to be busy all day?

She genuinely wanted random strangers to not go to the rugby because she enforced a halo of 'im pregnant and no one can be near me'

Surely if you're that precious about being pregnant you'd get a taxi?

As a fit healthy marathon runner, I am unable to stand on a moving bus due to vertebrate damage - I can walk and run, but standing still puts a different pressure on the back, and standing still on a jiggly bus is even worse

Some years ago I was making my way towards the last empty seat on a bus, and a man took it upon himself to police this seat and block my way and allocate it to an older looking person getting on behind me

I was NOT able to stand, and the sideways twist he forced me into jarred my damaged area badly enough for it to hurt for the rest of the day

No one else can possibly judge whether someone can stand on a bus or not, and as she clearly stated that she coouldnt, I dont see what else she could have done>

She said she needed to sit down, lets assume she needed to sit down then, shall we? Why wouldnt we? WE only have one source of information about her ability or otherwise to stand, and is her, herself, and she is saying that she cant.

And yes, if we believe every single person who tells us they cant stand, over the course of our lives, we may be lied to a tiny handleful of times, really, who cares? 95% of the time we will just be getting the plain truth, and I am really not going to appoint myself as policeman to somehow divine who the liars are, I'll just take the fact that I might get decieved in a tiny, unimportant way, once or twice.

This. Current parents are raising a self-centred entitled generation.

And priority seats are there for the elderly, those with disabilities, and pregnant women.

I felt awful when newly pregnant and had to get off the tube a couple of times as thought I would faint. Someone should’ve let her sit down.
I also ran out of supermarkets, sat in floor in Boots (when I was bigger), no-one asked if I was ok.
Someone should’ve offered her a seat.

Maybe she knew she was at risk of spewing all over anyone at any point

She should have got off if no-one offered her a seat. A child could have stood, I’d have told my child to get up and give her the seat

I can't believe no-one offered her a seat. When I was a kid, I would have been expected to stand for a pregnant woman on public transport.

Are "families" exempt from showing courtesy these days?

Well said, totally agree.

Being a child is not a disability or an illness. Who is going to teach them to consider others if their parents don't teach them in scenarios like this?

I wouldn't have put my child on a seat if there was a pregnant woman standing. I don't think it's precious, feeble or special, but it can make her feel very more vulnerable than normal and she did sound like she was very stressed.

My gran's second baby was stillborn because she was standing on a bus which braked sharply and she hit her bump. The tragedy blighted the rest of her life (she wasn't allowed to see or touch her baby nor allowed to know where he was buried, the 1940s were brutual ) So for me it goes without saying, the pregnant woman gets priority to sit and feel safer. Why not?

Pregnancy doesn't happen in a vacuum. She may have had other health issues. She might have been suffering a bereavement or stress at work or any other stressful life event. You never know what people are going through.

I suspect you've over egged the pudding with the 'I can't be touched' shouting. And what's the point of this thread? For us all to big you up and call her pathetic? That seems pretty pathetic to me.

Well quiet clearly someone should have just offered her a seat and then the guard wouldn’t have needed to intervene.

small children often are better sat down as can’t always reach a handle to hold on but it sounds like someone could have sat on a lap or if very little kids you could get two to a seat so it sounds like there were some selfish parents on board.

Unless no one who had a seat was fit and able, she should have been offered a seat - I would have offered her mine.

Oh, and in answer to the title of the OP: "What did she want people to do?"

She wanted just one person on the train to behave like a decent fucking human being and give up their seat for a pregnant woman who was obviously struggling.

Whatever the reason for her anxiety, it was obvious that she was really struggling that day and someone (I'd say one of the older kids) should have fucking well stood up, or been told to do so by their parents.

Everyone needs to take a bit of agency and responsibility for themselves as well. I am 37w pregnant at the moment and always ask for a seat if I am not immediately offered one on entry to the tram/bus/whatever. People never refuse. Why create a problem for yourself when there doesn’t have to be one?

And for those of you who were 'pregnant not sick' lucky you! Some of us are really debilitated by pregnancy.

But she clearly said she needed a seat, so she obviously did ask.

But everyone sat down apparently just stared at her thinking "Not my problem mate"

Children should stand for adults especially the elderly, disabled and pregnant women. I don’t understand why children are now seen to be priority? It’s weird.

It's really depressing, and reflective of the more individualistic direction society has been going in for some time. The fact that the OP started this thread in order to blame the woman, not the families who just watched her struggling says so much about how attitudes have shifted. Its utterly shit.

It’s a safety thing. If the tram stops suddenly a child or an elderly person is more likely to fall and injure themselves or done one else

Apparently children are worshiped like small gods these days. They can't possibly be slightly uncomfortable for a few minutes.

Maybe it had nothing to do with the pregnancy and people suddenly crowding round her triggered panic. This happens to me and it makes me faint sometimes. Being pregnant might have been easier for her to articulate than being crowded. Whatever her reasons she was obviously distressed and it would have been kind to help her.

In that scenario, a pregnant woman is more likely to be injured/harmed than a child who is older than about 7/8.

What a load of rubbish @cyclamenqueen Children fall over all the time and rarely hurt themselves. Have you ever seen them on a playground? They should always stand or sit on a parents or older siblings knee.

And the same goes for anyone with an illness or disability really.

After my first miscarriage, I became so paranoid that I thought I was made of glass the moment that second line swam into view on the test. (Of course, by my third miscarriage, I’d figured out it made no bloody difference whether I took to bed or stood on my head!)

We’ve all had very different experiences of pregnancy. For some of us it’s a joy, for some of us it’s slow torture. Some of us have low lying placentas, unexplained bleeding, or absurdly high blood sugar. Some of us can’t carry our babies at all, and adopt them from someone who can.

The differences in our stories are to be expected, but it’s the similarities that bind us. And having had some REALLY bad days while expecting my kids, I’d say she’s not pathetic… just a woman on the edge! I’d make my kids stand for her.

No, she's right. Small children are much more likely to fall on the tube than healthy youngish adults. I always offer my seat. Just a practical matter, not something to get all "hell in a handbasket" about.