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The horrible beautiful

Pregnancy is beautiful. Those women with their cute little bumps and glossy hair tell us so. Pregnant women smile a lot, and they caress their bumps, and they glow with the light of life burning inside. It’s truly a sight to behold.

Pregnancy can also be a horror show of cankles, bloating, acne, and boobs that become so large they end up squashed into one long sausage boob you have to tuck under your armpits.

Some women will feel like the most beautiful versions of themselves, while others will feel the worst they’ve ever felt. It’s an unfair lottery and you never know what you’re going to get.

The hardest part is you’re not allowed to complain about it, especially if you’ve worked hard to fall pregnant.

Women who’ve undergone fertility treatment or who’ve experienced multiple miscarriages along the way are supposed to be grateful. They’re supposed to be so overjoyed about the impending arrival of their desperately wanted baby that any sign of ungratefulness is pounced on.

It doesn’t matter how much you wanted this baby. It doesn’t matter if you’ve tried for years and years to fall pregnant. The wanting doesn’t erase the physical toll pregnancy can take.

All women can feel huge and disgusting and impatient for it all to be over and done with. It doesn’t mean you don’t want your baby. It doesn’t mean you won’t love that child when it arrives. It just means that pregnancy can be really rough.

It can also be the loveliest time of your life as you cherish how lucky you are to be a woman, experiencing the miracle of creation, holding your future in your womb, feeling the joy of anticipation.

You could be over the moon, or you could feel like a bag of compost. Neither is the ‘right’ way to be.