Becoming pregnant gives you a taste of what it’s like to be a minor celebrity, mainly in the sense that people you don’t know are constantly judging you. Your body, your behaviour and your every action comes under intense scrutiny during the gestational period.
When I was sporting my own bump, I frequently found myself on the receiving end of other people’s (unsought) advice and opinions. It seemed as if I was engaged in minor gestational infractions all the time, from eating sushi to wearing belly-tops – okay, I will admit that the latter was not a sight anyone needed to see, but in my defense I was on holidays.
I cycled everywhere when I was expecting – with, I hasten to add, due caution considering my precious cargo – but still I found myself on the receiving end of unsolicited lectures whenever I was stopped at traffic lights. “Should I be cycling in my condition?” … that kind of thing.
One day I made the mistake of drinking a Diet Coke in public, inadvertently inciting a barrage of outrage from bystanders. “Did I not know the damage I was doing to my unborn child?” I had a strong urge to down a vodka tonic in defiance.
Still; constantly being held up to some intangible code of moral standards and feeling like you are failing to uphold said moral standards, is a pretty good initiation to parenthood. That feeling of “I don’t know what I’m doing but I’m certain that I’m doing it wrong” is a constant companion post-birth.
This is why Irish writer and comedian (and general ride) Sharon Horgan is paving a path to enlightenment in her new series Catastrophe on Channel 4. The show is a brilliantly bleak, funny and honest account of a pregnancy. It’s taboo-busting: Horgan’s pregnant protagonist is shown stress-smoking and drinking a glass of wine during one scene. Miraculously it seems to have escaped the inevitable deluge of Internet Outrage, so often heaped on mothers who are not upholding their end of the bargain: to remain perfect and saint-like at all times. Props to Sharon Horgan for reminding us that mothers are human too.
