by Jamie Reed posted in Pregnancy

I had only recently announced my pregnancy publicly when a family friend, a man, gave me what I consider the best pregnancy advice I've received so far: "Don't listen to women who try to scare you with their horror stories."
He went on to say that when his wife was first pregnant (close to 20 years ago), he was amazed at the things other women would say to her. Instead of offering up congratulations and support upon hearing of her pregnancy, they wanted to talk about their 72 hours of horrific labor, emergency surgeries, and traumatic experiences. His final words" "Women already know pregnancy can be scary, why would they be so mean to each other""

Is it just the passing of time that makes some women lose their sensitivity toward sharing their stories" Or is a weird initiation into the "mom club" where pregnant women are expected to listen to these tales with awe and respect, while internally trying to close their ears to more scary information" The man I spoke to was right: (most) women aren't going into pregnancy blindly. We know the risks, complications, and potentially scary situations that could arise (between medical dramas on television and the Internet it's kind of amazing we're even pregnant to begin with). We're terrified of what could happen and hearing these stories as we're getting closer to due dates doesn't ease our fears.
Recently my husband and I were speaking to a coup...