babies comparable to tape worms?

In general, I avoid talk radio. I find it annoying and repetitive and would much rather listen to music during my morning commute. However, as I was driving across the bridge the other morning, one of the radio stations I was listening to was having a discussion on pregnancy and it caught my attention.

Apparently some nude pictures of a pregnant Jessica Alba have recently been released. One of the hosts of the show asked the question, are normally beautiful women still able to have the same appeal when they’re pregnant? Listeners were asked to call in to give their opinions. What followed was a little bit shocking to me.

First of all, most of the callers were women who had been pregnant before. The overwhelming response of listeners of that radio station was that no, pregnant women are not attractive. Most of their reasons were because “pregnant women are fat in places they shouldn’t be” and “when you’re pregnant, it’s not appropriate to show off your body, no one wants to see that.”

Perhaps the most shocking response of all came from a woman who said something along the lines of, “There isn’t anything attractive about being pregnant…it’s actually kind of disgusting. I mean, a baby inside of you is really just a parasite. What’s attractive about that?”

Really? A parasite? I think the baby being like a weird alien was mentioned as well by someone else.

When I was pregnant, I didn’t necessarily feel like it was the most beautiful thing in the world. It was harder to do things, and was frustrating at times. I didn’t fit into my clothes, and working as a waitress got harder by the day. I didn’t positively hate pregnancy, but I didn’t exactly love it either. And to be honest, there were times throughout the experience that it felt like there was an alien in me, and definitely times when it felt as if the baby was draining all of my energy.

Despite all of those things, though, I hardly think that I would ever dream of referencing a parasite when talking about my pregnancy.

What I found to be a common theme in these womens’ responses was that they seemed to imply that pregnancy is an unnatural thing. An alien that chose to invade them one day…something they had to painfully endure until the day it ended and produced a baby. As if pregnancy was something that would make them stand out in a crowd in a bad way and that should be covered up as much as possible.

I think that attitude is very sad. Because isn’t it true that pregnancy is probably one of the most natural things that can happen to a woman? Procreation has been going on since the beginning of time, and is the only reason why humans are even still around. So why should pregnancy be anything other than completely acceptable? I’m not saying that every woman should be comfortable with taking nude photos while pregnant– I know I sure wouldn’t have wanted to do that. But what I am saying is that I find it sad that anyone would find their pregnancy to be that abhorrent, or that these women would criticize someone like Jessica Alba for wanting to celebrate her pregnancy instead of stay under the radar for 40 weeks. I don’t think it’s fair to act like a pregnant woman no longer owns her body and the ability to choose what she does with it– it’s still hers, she’s just sharing it with someone else.

Some women may be conservative and there are lots of things about being pregnant that aren’t fun. But that doesn’t mean that pregnant women should be shut away in the house and be considered completely void of physical appeal. The creation of life is something to be admired, so why not make it look good? Wear cute sunglasses or get a new haircut. Make it feel good too, while you’re at it, and splurge on a prenatal massage.

And don’t worry, even though you may be drained every once in a while, your body (so long as your nutrition is on track) naturally provides for your growing baby. Growing a baby is surely exhausting, but it’s certainly nothing like a parasitic tape worm.