GET your HANDS off my BELLY.

Where I come from it is common place to just walk up and touch someone's belly if they are pregnant. If they look like they are having a bad day then it usually is recommended that you ask first lol. My grandmother always said that it was good luck to touch a woman's belly when she is pregnant and it is good luck for the baby as well. One thing my grandmother said was that they used to carry coins with them and when they would touch a belly they would slide the woman a coin to help out with necessities .. I think that is the part about bellyrubbing being good luck for the baby!

I think people get really excited when they see a pregnant woman, perhaps remember when their own children were growing inside the mom, and they long to touch it.

This is a fairly new phenomenon, people didn't do this even twenty years ago! More and more, people are getting intrusive and getting in each other's personal space. I would be very upset if someone had done that to me when I was pregnant!

It all boils down to a lack of respect for others, I think.

I never had much of a problem with this when I was pregnant. I really didn't LOOK pregnant until I was further along in both of my pregnancies. I think it is rude to walk up to someone you don't know and rub their belly. What if they are not really pregnant? I have seen some women who look like they could be and they are not.

yeah that is so right...i wonder why people think that the tummy of pregnant woman is no longer part of her. dang! if someone touched another's tummy when she is not pregnant, especially if he is a guy, then he would get a slap...but when the girl is pregnant, it seems that defenses of everyone, including the pregnant woman goes down. sometimes, the pregnant woman doesn't like it, but people like touching bulging bellies.

i dunno, it must be fetish...

geee....hehehe

I wish theyd ask but no people tend to just touch. Mabey i should start a trend someone touches my belly im gonna smack them. Its like they cant just ask when you are do they have to touch. Im gonna just say what do you mean im not pregnant and run off crying.

Agree!
I cannot understand that people think they have the right to rub other people. Just because there is a baby in their does not make it free for everyone to do what they want with it. Even when the baby comes out people ask before they touch the baby, don't they?

I completly agree! However mabye if I actually liked pregnant bellies the urge would overtake me however I tend to shy away from them as don't really like the look of a bulging baby belly!! Yes I'm weird but thats the way I am! lol

grr. I wrote this once and my computer had a fit and spit it out. lol

Anyway. I was saying that I don't know why people do this but they do. In three pregnancies I only had it happen a few times but it is very rude.

Can you imagine if pregnant women everywhere just started reaching out and doing it back. Here's the scenario I picture.

Stranger walks up to pregnant woman and reaches over to rub her tummy. Stranger coos and makes sweet comment. Pregnant woman then reaches out and rubs strangers tummy and coos and says something like "aw and your belly is nice too." lol I wonder how stranger would react.

That made me sooooo mad when people would do that! Any one and every one thinks a pregnant belly is a welcome sign to ask questions, and touch you. I don't like to be touched so I had a shirt made: Look but don't touch! Even it didn't work. My favorite was the woman with the little girl the mother was pulling her child over to me saying touch it touch it theres a baby in there. That poor child was scared to death! I looked at the woman and said I know what kind of parent I don't want to be and walked away.

I have been guilty of doing this. But I only do this to pregnant women I know. In my country it is quite normal for friends or acquaintances to do this. I think it's because pregnant women makes you wonder about the marvels of life. You think "Here is a new life growing in this mother's womb.". It is such an amazing thing. When I got pregnant I didn't mind it when friends touched my tummy. Can't say that I would let any stranger touch me too. Then they should ask me first. And even then I don't think I'd let them rub my tummy.