Most expectant mums hit the point, at some stage during pregnancy, of feeling uneasy about the way having a baby on board seems to make people think you're public property.
From people asking if they can touch your bump to total strangers getting all pass remarkable about its size and shape, it seems as though everyone thinks a pregnant woman is fair game when it comes to expressing opinions about how she looks.
But while I've had my fair share of those 'NO YOU CAN'T TOUCH IT' moments, I was surprised to read about the results of a new poll which suggests that 94 percent of women said they had been 'bump-shamed' during pregnancy, with people verbally attacking them for the way they look whilst pregnant.
The Mirror reports:
More than 60 per cent were told they were 'too fat', 32 per cent were dubbed 'too small' and on average an expectant mum suffers from ten verbal slurs while pregnant. Some women have even gone against medical advice and started dieting whilst pregnant due to body slurs in some cases from their partner or mother in law.
Two thirds of the mums polled said they would describe themselves as "embarrassed or ashamed or uncomfortable" during pregnancy on account of the bump-shaming they experienced.
Now maybe I'm just unusually thick-skinned but the comments mentioned don't actually strike me as bump-shaming - they include things like 'Are you sure it's not twins?' which I'm pretty sure was said to me during all three of my pregnancies.
I might not have loved the insinuation that I wasn't exactly slender but I certainly didn't feel the statement was a slur on my body or an attempt to make me feel ashamed of it. I just assumed that people speak first and think later when faced with a pregnant woman and I learned to shrug off the less-than complimentary comments.
But we'd love to hear your views on this topic. Would you say you were bump-shamed during pregnancy? And if so, how did you respond? Have your say by leaving a comment below or joining the debate over on our Facebook page.
I definitely feel bump shamed on a daily basis. Just last week I had someone say, 'my god, you're huge. Remember you shouldn't eat for two you know. It's not an excuse to let yourself go. You were so thin before.' I'm eating as before btw - no change to my diet. This on top of the usual 'is it twins?', 'there's no way you'll make your due date,' 'you're massive,' has made me very self conscious and I have started do worry about losing my baby weight.