A word on etiquitte towards pregnant women

I thought I would start out this post with a funny picture to show that I do have a since of humor about these matters. However, this is a serious post and one that I feel I am qualified as a second time pregnant woman to talk about. The topic is pregnancy etiquette. I'm not referring to the way pregnant women should act but the way people should act towards pregnant women. It seems for some reason that respect for pregnant women has been totally lost in our culture and dare I say most of western culture.

For some reason we have not taught our children and therefore ourselves how to treat and talk to a pregnant woman. Let me state first that I don't believe pregnancy is in anyway a handycap. I just believe a little respect is in order.

So here we go first is the Do NOT list.
Do NOT:

• walk up to a pregnant woman and tell her how huge her belly is, doesn't matter if you do or don't know her. And don't tell her she must be having twins.
• touch her belly without asking first. Especially if you do not know her. It doesn't matter how many children you have had. Personal space is still personal space.
• proclaim to her the gender of the baby she is going to have due to the way her belly is shaped. She probably already knows and it may or may not be a touchy subject. Simply asking the gender is enough.
• tell her how horrible it is that she has endure the whole of this season or that season pregnant. You have to go through it as well, being pregnant doesn't make it all that different.

Please DO:

• tell her congratulations
• tell her she looks beautiful. This one is really important as the constant change in body shape can make her feel self-conscious. (husband note: this also works when she's not pregnant!)
• hold the door for her
• offer to hold or carry something heavy
• offer a seat to her on the bus or on a bench

I feel like these few things are so straightforward, although for some reason every time I go out in public I am subjected to the entire do not list and only a congratulations after that. If you feel there are any others I should add, feel free to leave a comment. I'd love to hear your opinions on this subject.