Pregnant women give me panic attacks. My 3 year old son loves them. He is drawn to them. He wants to touch their bellies. This has happened a few times. Every time I have had a massive panic attack. I can not be near pregnant women if my son is around.

It's like you're reading my mind (except that I m only 4 months into this and don't work at home).

Just this morning I made pasta salad so that I can just keep it in my boss's fridge and avoid going to the kitchen to use the microwave where there will be an encounter with a pregnant woman or someone with a newborn (or other insensitive coworkers that just suck). My stomach usually hurts first, then my heart beats fast and hard, I get shortness of breath, and sometimes I get dizzy. So I think like JGirlNYC, I am also having panic attacks. It's too much so I'm just avoiding the kitchen altogeter now.

And you know what, I actually hid in a room at church on Sunday and missed the service cause I didn't want to see pregnant ladies or this other black girl that just had a baby girl last month. Just thinking about it made my stomach hurt and I couldn't put myself through it.

Only thing that's different for me now is that I don't envy them as much and am okay waiting until I get another turn. But I too still avoid them as much as possible. Sometimes I wonder if this avoidance will carry on even when I'm pregnant or have my own baby...

I still have a really hard time with pregnant women, too. It has been four months since I lost my daughter. I hate it! It isn't a voluntary thing, but I inwardly cringe at the thought or hearing of or sight of a pregnant woman. It's horrible! It is just an instant reminder of what I lost and what I long for. Someday it will get better, but I don't know when.

I understand what you're going through. It's been 4 months since I lost Alexis and honestly I feel like it's gotten harder for me to be around pregnant women. It's all just too much to deal with - the anger, the bitterness, the envy, and then the guilt for thinking what I'm thinking. I try to avoid them as much as possible too except two women on my staff are pregnant and since they report to me it's almost impossible NOT to interact with them. I force myself to not look at their bellies when I see them - it's like a knife in the heart everytime I see them wearing cute maternity outfits. I shouldn't even be working right now - I should have been on maternity leave; enjoying my newborn daughter. Sometimes I really hate my life :(

Thanks for all your replies glad to hear I am not the only one still struggling with this...I even used to hide my belly in the beginning so no one would ask me about what happened.

Its been over a year and a half since Jack died. I also had my rainbow baby, Will. I still hate seeing pregnant women and have a very hard time seeing babies! Just the other night I started crying when I went on facebook and saw two more friends pregnant with their belly photos of each week...I always wonder "will there baby die?" It hurts like hell and I think it always will for me as sad as it is :( I'm sorry its so difficult. I wish we could just be happy for their miracles but its so hard!

Well there's one sitting two seats away from me. I'm at the lab for bloodwork. They just gave her the sweet drink to test for GD. Even if I wouldn't have been looking up I would have figured it out. Kinda hard to avoid when you're seated first.

I walk with my head down a lot these days to avoid stuff but last night I found myself sandwiched between a lady with an 8 month old and a lady that's 8 months when going in the door to church. And both of them know what happened to mine so that made it even more uncomfortable. I said hi and then I let the lady with the baby hold the door open while I went in first. The old me would have held the door open for them both...So last night if I had not been trying to avoid it, I could have avoided it. Sigh...

Thanks Jack and Will's mom for confirming that I could potentially still have some of these feelings even when I'm preg or have my own.

And you know what else can't be avoided? Getting the emails at work when other people's babies are born. It used to just make me sad but now I have physical symptoms of dread. If there's a preg lady in the office then I know it's coming but what catches me off guard is when it's the wife of a man in the office. Those catch me totally off guard.

I'm gonna ask HR if they can create a new Baby Announcement distro instead of sending it to Entire Staff. This one girl just had her baby at 26 weeks and if God forbid he doesn't make it, then she will be glad I did.

I have gotten to the point where I can tolerate pregnant women only because it seems like I am the only person in the whole world that's either no longer pregnant or without child. It was a painful adjustment but I knew I had to do it . It would physically and mentally kill me slowly if I didnt . Honestly what still bothers me a bit is a pregnant lady that takes her preganancy for granted like smoking or using drugs or just being wreckless period. Knowing that I tried to do everything right and lost my baby anyway. yeah that still gets underneath my skin.

You know what I just realized, sometimes they avoid us even more than we avoid them...