So, I've ben hanging out with a lot of pregnant ladies lately, and I wanted to start a thread about how as soon as the writ is dropped, so to speak, that woman's belly, eating and drinking habits, and general behaviour falls under the jurisdiction of, well, anyone. Complete strangers come up and ask you questions about your due date and rub your belly uninvited. Then of course, there are the lectures: an acquaintance of mine was questioned at work for drinking a cup of coffee, and then told (by a childless man) "I'm just thinking about the baby." A friend of mine who works at a bistro said that a co-worker of hers refused to serve an alcoholic drink to a pregnant lady because she "didn't feel right about it."
While I'm interested in talking about the vomit-inducing paternalism and judgement pregancy invites (or at least venting about it), I'm also interested in ways we could possibly recuperate and embrace this public-ness: for example, pregnant women are also the recipient of smiles when they walk around in public, which I think is a positive expression of sociality and pregnancy--in the kind of way that the child will be a product of his or her society as well.
Thoughts? Experiences to share? Belly photos?