Just not on

How difficult can it be to spot a pregnant woman? Granted, in the first three or four months it can be slightly tricky but by around six months it’s pretty obvious. (Although I do recall once asking someone at a Christmas party when she was due to give birth. A sickening silence followed by tears told me that she had attacked the mince pies with too much gusto rather than being pregnant).

Given the obvious nature of someone more than six months pregnant, I wonder if someone can tell me why tube passengers think it OK to notice someone ‘in the family way’ and promptly return to reading their paper? Day after day, it seems to happen and no-one does the decent thing by giving up their seat.

But worse than that was a scene on the tube this morning. A pregnant lady got on at one door and was making for a seat quite close by. Someone else got on via a different door and literally ran for the same seat, all but barging the pregnant person out of the way. In the 25 years or so of using London Transport, I have never witnessed anything like that. What made it worse was that the person who made like an American Footballer was also female!

Now, clearly I have never been pregnant and cannot completely understand the shenanigans that go on inside the body. I do know, however, that it cannot be entirely comfortable carting around four or five pounds of baby plus an additional five or six pounds of ‘other stuff’. Having a seat on a packed and hot tube is the very least you might expect of your fellow human beings.

So next time you see someone pregnant, don’t pretend you haven’t seen them and return to your paper. Imagine what it would be like carrying five bags of sugar around your midriff. And then get off your lazy arse…