To absolutely hate the phrase "to fall pregnant"

[CoheedandCambria]

I had never heard this phrase until I was well into adulthood and it sounds so wrong to me.

You fall ill, you fall from grace. To 'fall' has entirely negative connotations in my eyes. If ever anyone says they "fell pregnant" it always sounds like an unwanted accident to me but people say it of wanted and planned for pregnancies 🤷🏻

I feel the same! It wasn’t an expression I ever heard until I was early 20s, and then it was in the context of a very young single woman being advised to get her name down for a council house ‘…in case you fall pregnant’.

The usual expression was ‘going to have a baby’, or ‘expecting a baby’.

However the one that really grated was in a period TV drama - a Victorian setting - when a minor aristocrat said to a woman of similar status, ‘…if she fell pregnant…’.
‘If she were to have a child…’ would have been more like it, but then TV writers and script editors would often seem to be completely clueless nowadays when it comes to appropriate dialogue.

I hate it too Op. it makes it seem like you tripped and whoops you “fell” pregnant. Even worse when shortened to just “I fell”. It makes it sound bad, shameful or otherwise undesirable.

Contraception fail resulting in pregnancy?

Agree and worse is WE fell pregnant. No you didn't. Only one of you is actually pregnant. You want the first person singular there matey.

I’ve never heard caught before - that’s terrible. I would probably lean towards “I got pregnant”, “I realised I was pregnant”, “I became pregnant”

I find "we're pregnant" much worse.

I always equated ‘fall pregnant’ with ‘fallen woman’ (horrible misogynistic old-fashioned term).

Yes, I’ve heard ‘caught’ for pregnant too. Also West Mids. Always made me think that the fertilised egg has caught on the womb, rather than ‘caught out’. I was a very literal youngster…

Thinking about it because of this post, I realise that most ways of referring to pregnancy, other than 'she got pregnant/is pregnant) are annoying because they are twee and evasive. 'bun in the oven' 🤮 Italians talk about bring 'in sweet waiting '.

What if you fall onto a cock? It could happen. Like all those poor men who accidentally fall onto their hoovers while vacuuming naked.

I actually quite like "in the family way"

The older Irish women in my family still say, "So and so found herself in the family way" 🤣

It’s not as bad as ‘we’re pregnant’, er no, only one person is pregnant and that is the woman.

We had been "trying" for 19m (long story, but there were lots of stops and starts and a testicular cancer scare) when I became pregnant.

I had irregular cycles, and we'd been on a weird schedule than month which made the two times we had sex highly unlikely to result in a child. I didn't even notice I was five days late because I was worried about the cat at the vets.

We were very surprised when I was pregnant! I find it pretty annoying when people are all po-faced about "blah blah blah you were having unprotected sex blah blah mimble mimble".

It was a surprise that I fell pregnant.

That'll piss them off :D

Though I hate ‘WE’ are pregnant as well

That’s my pet hate too

I agree
To me it smacks of 'fallen woman '
A label punishing women

I see both “fall pregnant” and “caught pregnant” as being old fashioned and cringe but they don’t have particularly negative connotations about the women involved to me. I’d never thought of it as meaning an accident. It just reminds me of saying “monthlys” instead of periods, something you might hear on Call the Midwife when everyone was a bit more prudish and wording was a bit more twee. Must admit we liked using “in the club” or “in the family way” ironically a few times but I don’t suppose they’re in use much now.

Almost as strange as falling head over heels in love.

So that would be an accident

YABU because it does not affect you whatsoever.

It's just an expression. It has nothing to do with falling from grace. Would you say the same about the expression 'fall in love'?

I have heard "fall into death" at a funeral.

What about “fallen/fell lucky”?

Like committing suicide

Like a crime (it used to be)

The phrase I don’t like is “can’t wait to meet my baby” or “finally met our baby” etc…

How can you meet someone who’s been inside you 9 months? You already know them!