Hey CDC, Get Your Hands Off Our Pregnant Bodies
It was a typical Wednesday evening as I was cleaning and getting ready to cook dinner. My groceries had just gotten delivered so I waddled out of my apartment without any shoes to grab them right at the end of the hall.
Groceries in hand, I pivoted quickly to start the short walk down the hall back to my apartment when a woman stopped me. Her eyes went straight to my belly (it’s hard to miss, me being 8 months pregnant now on such a tiny frame). “When are you due?” she asked. I awkwardly told her my due date, still shoeless and carrying two giant bags of groceries. The conversation took an immediate turn to a place most conversations have been going these days: “If you haven’t, you need to get the vaccine. I can’t believe how many mothers are depriving their babies of immunity by not getting the vaccine.”