10 Things Movies Always Get Wrong About Pregnancy and Childbirth

People have a lot of opinions about pregnancy and childbirth, and not all of them are true. The media certainly doesn’t help in perpetuating these stereotypes and myths, and most movies get the whole process totally wrong. Here are the top things the media gets wrong about pregnancy and the process of having a kid.

1. Getting pregnant when you’re middle aged is a breeze

Anyone who’s seen Bridget Jones’s Baby knows about this old trope. But women over 40 often have more trouble conceiving than the “accidental” pregnancies that often go down for middle aged women in films. Without the assistance of a doctor, the naturally lower ovarian reserve and quality of eggs makes things much more difficult.

2. All infertility issues are the woman’s fault

We find this to be a particularly rude stereotype, and it’s not true since men and women are pretty much at the same place when it comes to who faces more infertility. Infertility occurs to at least 30% of men, so why is it that women get all the blame on the big screen?

3. With the right guy, comes the baby that was meant to be

Rarely do we see a movie where the woman has frozen her eggs or is having a kid whilst single. It’s a bummer that we don’t see too many on-screen examples of a woman raising her kid alone, since it’s a pretty common scenario. However, it’s still completely stigmatized in movies – either bae leaves, or it’s a surprise rather than a conscious choice to be a mother.

4. She goes between hot panicked mess and ditzy shallow princess

Instead of being seen as an actual human being with her own individual personality (it doesn’t all go away with pregnancy, people). Her life as we know it disappears and she turns into “crazy pregnant lady.” Outside of this shrill stereotype is the ditz one.