Op-Ed Urges Well-Meaning Strangers to Think Twice Before Offering Advice to Pregnant Women

LA Times (Op-Ed): Listen to a mom-to-be: Hush, strangers, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner:

Pregnancy can be difficult, and your comments, warnings or questions might hit a nerve.

Despite how defensive I've become, despite how hormonal I surely am, I am clearheaded enough to know that the acquaintance who is standing here, reeling off the high mortality rates of pregnant women around the world, is well-meaning. Surely he does not intend to scare me when he confides that despite his wife's easy pregnancies and natural deliveries, he was acutely aware that he could lose them anytime. He wishes to reassure me when he speaks of the miracles of technology that allow women like me to give birth.

I still wish he'd shut up. . . .