TMI Overload

A visibly pregnant belly is like an open invitation to strangers to share way way way too much information. Personal information, specifically about their body and its functions.  I kid you not, some woman today showed me a picture on her iphone of her mucus plug.  No joke.  No warning.  Which naturally begs the question, "Why did she take a picture of it?" I threw up a little in my mouth.
I am modest by nature.  After three years of dorm living, I not once exposed myself while showering or dressing, not even to my roommates.  I have perfected the art of the discrete undress and dress.  I only share personal information with close friends.  And even with my husband of eight years, we're a bathroom-door-closed kind of family.

This over sharing by complete strangers is mind-boggling.  It is as if there is some secret sisterhood of child-birthing that women are dying to initiate every other woman into.  It seems a bit exclusive to me, and could be quite off-putting, even hurtful, to those women who chose not to become mothers, cannot conceive a child naturally, or simply became mothers by a different means, such as adoption.  I am adopted, and so the barrage of birthing stories, hemorrhoids, mucus plugs (blech), and the like, was foreign to me.  My mother never talked of these things, as she had no personal experience.  And you know what?  That is perfectly fine with me.

So let this be my official announcement.

Dear Strangers,

Unless I know you, keep your:

1. Things my husband and I tried to induce labor
2. How much weight I gained
3. Tearing Horror Stories
4.  Bloody Show
5. Stretch Marks
6. Hemorrhoid

...stories to yourself.

Please don't ask me personal questions about my body that you would not normally ask a stranger without a protruding baby belly.  And lastly, hands off people.  I still don't know you, and I certainly don't want you to touch me or my unborn child.

Thank you, that is all.

Sincerely,
Michaela

I have noticed that the stories and all the touching are much less frequent when I have my other two children with me.  It's like I've proven that I don't need advice or stories, because I've lived it before.  Note to self:  for the next three weeks or so, never leave home without my children.