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Can one feel proud to be pregnant?

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softwareNerd

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Paraphrasing a FB post:

I friend says she is happy and proud to be pregnant. Does it make sense to say one is proud to be pregnant? After all, it does not take much does it?

I think people can feel proud when they've taken the first step toward some goal that they also find daunting in some way.

Thoughts?

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Paraphrasing a FB post:

I think people can feel proud when they've taken the first step toward some goal that they also find daunting in some way.

Thoughts?

Achieving and maintaining pregnancy can involve significant planning and effort. Being pregnant -- from what I understand -- can be difficult. People chart their biological status, take classes, pre-natal vitamins, endure screenings, read books, deal with workplace complications, risk miscarriage, suffer physical change and trial, and so on. It's not a light thing to be lightly undertaken, but the rewards can be great.

While the above covers a bit more ground than simply "being" pregnant, taken together I can understand why someone might find reasonable pride in their pregnancy.

If, by way of contrast, we're imagining a pregnant woman as simply a bump on a log, who lays there as changes occur to her... then I guess there's no pride in that? But I've never known any pregnant women of whom that would be an apt description, nor would I associate with them generally. I guess that I'm saying that to "be pregnant" well in modern society is a heap of work, and if a woman sets herself to do that work properly, then absolutely there's reason to be proud of her efforts and accomplishments.

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Depends on that family's values, no? They just achieved the first step of a huge commitment that they may have been planning for awhile (or maybe not). Becoming pregnant is a product of the couple's love and shared sense of life - and if one isn't proud of what one produces or is, then I'd say there's a problem.

That sometimes pregnancy doesn't require much effort is the wrong way to think of being prideful of it or anything else. Depends on the people: for some people, math is hard and might take extra effort, and so solving a hard calculus problem or passing a test is something to take pride in. For myself, holding things in my right hand is hard and achieving certain fitness goals takes extra effort, so when I found something that helps me hold things in my hand, I'm now achieving those goals that others find very easy. Or take my enrolling in karate: I'm now a karateka and am proud of that because I've always wanted to practice that martial art. It wasn't hard to do, but I did it and put in a lot of effort.

So I think your facebook friend is being overly pessimistic about it, and thinking in terms of achievements diminishing in value because many other people can also achieve them. I can hit a 3 point NBA shot, but that doesn't diminish the value of an NBA player's ability to do it, or anyone else's. It's the implicit comparison to collective ability that's the fallacy there.

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Thoughts?

Depends on the context. The women featured on the Maury Povich show probably don’t feel proud when they find they’re pregnant:

Never minding those cases, if you’ve gotten to the point in life where you’re starting to have children responsibly you ought to be happy about it, and feelings of pride naturally tie in with happiness.

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Paraphrasing a FB post:

I think people can feel proud when they've taken the first step toward some goal that they also find daunting in some way.

Thoughts?

Paraphrasing a FB post:

I think people can feel proud when they've taken the first step toward some goal that they also find daunting in some way.

Thoughts?

On the face of it, it sounds like a response to shame. Like there were reasons to be not proud surrounding the circumstances and clinging to the opposite will make i easier to bare, though admittedly there are a lot of assumptions in that assessment. Outside of that, the only circumstance where I can see it making sense in an Objectivist world view is if it did require some effort beyond sex. Fertility problems, finding the right person to do it with, that sort of thing. Otherwise, I would guess they're operating on an alternative definition of pride.

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