Mum-of-three shares powerful open letter after being trolled for having ‘too many children close in age’

A pregnant mum-of-three has posted an open letter to 'pregnancy shamers' who targeted her when she announced her third pregnancy.

Aussie fitness blogger Anna Strode is the proud mum of three children: three-year-old twins, Lachie and Samuel, as well as 18-month-old Madi Grace. The 33-year-old, who goes by Bubs2Bikinis on Instagram, recently took to social media Alongside a photo of her bump, she wrote:

"I had absolutely no idea that 'pregnancy shaming' existed until, I announced we had baby #4 on the way.

"You may have noticed I've been a little quite on Instagram the last 7 or so months. I've been busy and sick but also a little anxious when posting.

"Why?! Because over the past 7 months I have been criticised, judged and blatantly questioned why we have chosen to have another baby."

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Anna Strode (@bubs2bikinis) on Feb 4, 2019 at 1:25pm PST

She went on to detail some of the comments she had received, including things like 'wow, surely you're not pregnant AGAIN' and to 'STOP HAVING BABIES'. She added that some people has asked her if she didn't believe in contraception, or began to make rude comments about their children being so close in age sine that means she won't "enjoy" them. Anna wrote that she was sharing this on Instagram to clarify a few things.

 

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A post shared by Anna Strode (@bubs2bikinis) on Feb 12, 2019 at 1:06am PST

Her post went on:

"Yes, I do believe in contraception, I was on it for manyyyyyy years. YES this baby WAS planned. "We actually tried for a few months before successfully falling pregnant. And YES, I thoroughly enjoy my children even though they are close in age. I LOVE it in fact! "I always wanted 4 children. For as long as I can remember, 4 just seemed like the number for me. I also all imagined them being close in age. I was blessed that my husband wanted the same. "I never imagined that doing what my hubby and I wanted to do, would upset so many people or affect them in anyway. "I mean, I don't understand why us having another baby would worry anyone so much? "Anyone would think I asked the 'pregnancy shamers' to wake all night and feed my baby, change dirty nappies, entertain my toddlers. "But no, nothing will change for them so why the negativity towards me and my families choices?!"

She ended the post by explaining that while she's made peace with the fact that "some people are just negative", she encouraged her followers to "please by kind." The post struck a chord with other mums, getting more than 1,000 comments and thousands of likes.