It’s always been said that pregnant women should not share their pregnancies openly until they are out of their first trimester. The main reason for this is during the first trimester, that’s when there’s the most concern about whether your pregnancy could end in a miscarriage. And who wants to tell friends that they are pregnant, to then retract that statement just a couple weeks later? It’s devastating and tragic, and well, society doesn’t know how to respond to miscarriages in a tasteful way that doesn’t blame the woman who had the miscarriage. Miscarriage is the result of at least 30 percent of all pregnancies, and that’s only what is reported; the actual number is likely much higher. That’s very much fear inducing in itself.

But maybe we’re actually part of the problem in continuing this. Maybe by not sharing, we’re actually increasing the stigma around pregnancy loss. We’re making it “not normal” to share before you clear the 13th week mark of pregnancy. Maybe we should all be openly sharing when we are pregnant during our first trimester because that will increase awareness and communication around pregnancy, the highs AND the lows, and the very real fear and worry of miscarriage. Miscarriage doesn’t just affect people you don’t know; it actually has likely affected MOST people you know whether you are aware of it or not.

The only downside of this idea is that when you are the pregnant person hoping to share, to lead the way in being progressive and forward thinking, is that the burden will ultimately fall on you if your pregnancy does end in a loss. And that’s quite a heavy load to carry on top of the loss itself. It’s a complicated matter about a complicated topic. There’s really no winning in this. I just wish more people had more empathy when it came to pregnancy, pregnancy loss, and the real burdens that pregnant women, and women hoping to become pregnant, face. There is so much anxiety that is not openly acknowledged. It’s not really a fun and exciting time in the first thirteen weeks because you’re plagued by fear of the unknown.