Pregnant Woman Horrified When Coworker She Meets For The First Time Shares Her Traumatic Birth Story In Detail And Offers To Be Her Birthing Coach

"We are engineers and she has no medical background"

Chelsi

• Published in Interesting
• November 5, 2023

An expecting mom received unsolicited pregnancy advice from a coworker she met for the first time, and it made her uncomfortable. The 32-year-old OP is a first-time mom.

OP is just about ready for her maternity leave. She reported to work to tie up loose ends and to properly handover her projects to her colleagues.

OP works remotely most of the time. She met some of the newer employees online, but this was her first time meeting most of them in person.

She was visibly pregnant, and her maternity leave was not a secret, so most of her coworkers asked her about her experience. OP happily answered their questions about preparing for the baby.

Most of her interactions with the new employees were pleasant, save for one standout. Susan has been at the company for less than a month.

They interacted over Teams previously, but OP's visit was their first proper introduction. She asked a lot of questions about OP's pregnancy.

She shared her own birthing story in graphic detail. OP found Susan's oversharing a bit odd and tried to steer the conversation in another direction.

That was when Susan said she was speaking to OP as a friend, not a colleague. She asked OP to call her if she noticed anything odd about her pregnancy.

She even offered to coach OP as she prepared for birth. They are engineers by trade — Susan had no medical training, so OP was more than a little freaked out.

OP said she appreciated the thought, but reassured Susan that she and her baby had all the support they needed.

Susan replied that it was sometimes easier to talk to another person with a similar experience. She repeated that OP can call her even in the middle of the night when she doesn't want to disturb her husband.

OP told Susan that this wasn't an appropriate workplace discussion. She asked her to keep their interactions work-related moving forward.

Susan was upset. She avoided OP and took longer to respond to her emails.

OP told her mom about the odd interaction. Her mom said OP was too harsh with Susan.

She thought Susan was trying to make friends at work, and it was possible that talking about her pregnancy was her way of bonding.

OP reacted appropriately to an inappropriate interaction that made her uncomfortable. She was direct and assertive, but not rude.

It seems Susan is carrying trauma from her own birth experience and tried to reassure OP in a roundabout way that she has support if she needed it.

It accomplished the opposite. It freaked OP out instead.

It's sad what Susan went through but unloading it to a pregnant person you just met is a terrible idea

OP's mom is right, it was Susan's way of bonding with OP. It was still wrong.

She probably thought OP would be at ease with her since she shared something so personal. It's why she's avoiding OP.

If Susan doesn't stop, OP can loop their boss in about what happened

Susan may have had good intentions, but she really should have listened when OP asked her to stop

OP didn't share any more updates about Susan. She posted a month ago, so we can only assume that she had already given birth.

Hopefully, without Susan in the delivery room. OP did the right thing by establishing a boundary with Susan; tolerating it would have only resulted in more uncomfortable conversations.

Chelsi