I was shocked, when Vicki's sister was pregnant, at the number and intrusiveness of the bizarre restrictions on her diet/behavior that family (and total strangers!) felt free to suggest. Some of it was well-intentioned but silly, and other stuff was basically just weird. (This intrusive do-gooderism continues well after pregnancy, of course!)
What was really funny was the unanimous consensus among elders that there was going to be a baby boy at the end of nine months. 9 months later: a healthy baby girl! So much of the "suggestions" were offered in the spirit of "folk wisdom" or whatever, that generations of women have passed down, etc etc etc. Well, sometimes your annoying and silly ideas are just annoying, silly, and wrong to boot.
Anyway, I thought about this a bit more today after reading Natasha. It might occur to us one day that women not only are intelligent actors with their own agency, but that they remain such even after they've been impregnated.
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Hey, DW, you're working the Birth Pangs corner, there!
All kidding aside, this is one particular aspect of pregnancy - the constant unsollicited advice - that most if not all women find quite irritating. Thanks for blogging about it.
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