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 🤷🏻

In my youth, a woman sometimes "got herself pregnant" when it was unplanned. No man involved!

I'm with you. Had my DH said 'we're pregnant' when I was, I would have ended up a single parent.

100% agree op

I would interpret that phrase as an unplanned pregnancy. I've never heard it used when a woman announced they are pregnant after trying.

I was going to agree with you that it was silly then thought actually, I might have said it. It’s just one of those things some people say.

They did not fall pregnant.
The embryo did not fall into a uterus.
They became pregnant.

Did they somehow fall onto a man's penis? If not, they did not fall pregnant.

I hate couples who say we’re pregnant even more

Who hurt you?

I much prefer this than when people say they “caught”

As an American, I didn’t ever hear this expression until I came to Mumsnet. I agree - you fall ill, you don’t “fall pregnant.”

@OonaStubbs Yeah, that’s what I always think of. “Oops, I slipped and fell in a penis, and now I’m pregnant!” 😂

I can’t stand the phrase oft seen on MN, “enjoy your baby!” like it’s a cute little hobby or a nice cup of tea.

As if any man ever got told, “enjoy your baby!” on a social media site.

true but you dont fall on a * to make the baby

I don't like that either.

I absolutely HATE "We are pregnant". Only women can be pregnant for goodness sakes!

I get your point, but it's not that deep.

I am an old lady. I never heard the phrase growing up in my bit of rural England. Indeed I've only ever heard it in the last ten years or so in British usage. I dislike it very strongly indeed because of the lack of agency (and education in the basic facts of life!) implied. Ideally one chooses to have sex and chooses not to use contraceptives in the hope that one might conceive a child. It vaguely sounds to me like something one would hear in a working class area in the 19th century except that the respectable working classes would have probably spoken of somebody "expecting" and the respectable middle classes would have described the woman as being in an interesting condition. Among other euphemisms..

Anyway, the phrase drives me bonkers.

Haven’t rtft but in case anyone else hasn’t said it yet
see also- “got herself pregnant”
no woman in the history of ever has got “herself” pregnant

I don’t mind it. A lot better than the odious “we’re pregnant” anyway

Oh and ‘she’s up-duffed’, said of a pregnant woman by a man who finds himself terribly witty. Mate, you’re not.

(Funnily enough, I don’t mind the actual expression ‘up the duff’ when used of herself by a woman, though.)

I dont get heavily pregnant you are either pregnant or not

I want to go up to the man and ask him how he managed it

It sounds a bit old fashioned and twee, like the pregnant woman is embarrassed and is trying to put it delicately. I imagine someone who ‘fell pregnant’ talking about her ‘monthlies’ and calling sex ‘intimacy’.

People who say ‘we are pregnant’ are baffling to me. A male colleague once told me ‘we are breastfeeding exclusively.’. Really, mate? Are ya? I wanted to start a rousing chorus of ‘get your tits out for the lads’, but managed to refrain…

What a strange post.

Are the royal family often at the forefront of your mind?

And that would be an accident.

I think that's just "poetic" rather than an actual phrase.