Woman Praised for Revealing Pregnancy at Boyfriend's Sister's Wedding

A woman has been praised online after she revealed her pregnancy while at her boyfriend's sister's wedding.

In a viral Reddit post, which can be seen here, user biddiek wrote that she and her boyfriend, 38, had been together for two years and that she was now seven months pregnant.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 3.6 million births in the U.S. in 2020.

The 27-year-old Redditor wrote that she and her partner had both been invited to his sister's wedding and had told only a few people, including the bride, that she was pregnant.

She added: "Because I've been keeping my pregnancy pretty hidden, it was a lot of people's first time seeing me pregnant and I had people coming up to me pretty much all night congratulating me.

"I could tell his sister was upset about it so I tried to downplay it when people came over but there wasn't much I could do about it."

The poster wrote: "The day after the wedding my boyfriend's mom called him, ****** off that I wouldn't say anything to people beforehand because I took the attention away from his sister all night.

"I feel bad for his sister, but I don't think I should have to make a pregnancy announcement before I'm ready and I'm not sure how I could've told people beforehand aside from calling up the entire guest list which is just ridiculous.

"My boyfriend is on my side, but his mom, sister and apparently a lot of his other family members are upset with me," the woman added.

Zoe Burke, leading wedding expert and editor at Hitched, told Newsweek: "It's never a good idea to announce anything at a wedding that you haven't already cleared with the happy couple because, otherwise, you do run the risk of stealing the spotlight from them on their big day.

"It's tricky with pregnancies as there are so many reasons why someone would want to keep that to themselves, and it's absolutely no one's business to ask or assume that another person is or isn't pregnant.

"People do love to speculate, though, and we see this every day in the media, with celebrities, and so it is certainly something that a pregnant person might worry could be revealed if they haven't previously announced it to the world," Burke said.

"While often not drinking is assumed by many as the key indicator that someone is pregnant, our research shows that around 1-in-10 weddings are teetotal these days, which obviously reduces one worry that something might slip out."

Burke said: "Wearing loose-fitting clothes is another option that will help to hide any physical evidence of a pregnancy, but, unfortunately, it won't stop the speculation.

"I think, in this particular example, the parents-to-be had no part to play in the announcement and shouldn't feel any sort of guilt or remorse for how it played out at the wedding. They were under no obligation to tell people their news prior to the wedding, and, in fact, did tell the people to whom it really mattered.

"Weddings, as with pregnancies, are wonderful, joyous occasions, which ought to be celebrated without worry about what others will think. While people may spend a few minutes congratulating the parents-to-be on their news, the focus at a wedding will always be the happy couple."

The post has racked up 3,900 upvotes since it was uploaded to Reddit on Monday. The overwhelming majority of people who commented on the post criticized the family, with one branding the situation "ridiculous."

The Redditor, whose comment was upvoted more than 9,400 times, wrote: "This expectation that people notice absolutely nothing in the world aside from the bride for the entire day (because let's face it, no one ever cares if the groom gets attention) is ridiculous.

"The bride can't be talking to everyone at once, but apparently when she's not talking to people, they should all be staring adoringly at her and whispering to each other about how wonderful she is.

"It's not like you made a big announcement, she invited you and you just existed as a pregnant person. If she can't handle your existence at the expense of her fragile little ego, why did she let you come to start with?"

Another Redditor posted: "Entitled family (who knew OP was pregnant): How very dare you show up and steal a tiny fraction of attention away from [the] bride."

One user commented: "Luckily, I don't have anyone like this in my life that I'm related to (I had to cut off a few 'friends' though), but if I did, I would say bye and never talk to them again."

Newsweek tried to contact the original poster for comment.