When one is pregnant, their body goes through a lot of changes. One can gain weight and one can also feel nauseous in that period. There can be a lot of physical and mental changes that can happen during this tenure and the obvious change that shows is the belly that comes out or keeps growing as the foetus starts growing.

But when the belly grows and the pregnancy starts to show, there is also a tendency that people keep touching and rubbing the belly and sometimes they do not even take permission. Some strangers coming up and randomly touching the belly is not a good thing at all and you can always say, ‘don’t touch my belly’. This is a strict violation of hampering someone’s personal space. In fact, one should at least ask for permission before doing so.

Though unwanted touching of belly may not harm the baby inside in any way but it is a very wide spread and an offensive act to perform. In fact, there have been instances of women reporting it and filing charges against people who have touched their belly without taking permission and kept continuing that even if they were warned to stop. In many states this falls under the rule of harassing issue of repeatedly touching someone.

If one cannot think of walking straight up to a woman and touch other parts of her body suddenly then why it should not be the same in case of a pregnant woman’s belly? If some little kids do that it still makes sense because they do not have much of a common sense and not very aware of seeking permissions but for adults this is definitely not a thing to do.

Some studies may also point to the fact that some unknown touching can also lead a pregnant woman to become over sensitive and there can be a hormonal imbalance for that. But this might not be true in most of the cases. But no matter what, even if it does not cause any kind of health problems one should not allow this issue and let this happen to them and their near ones.

So, if someone wants to go ahead and touch your belly then you do not have to be rude to them. You can just politely ask them not to do it anymore and this is very essential when you go out in a public space in that condition. If someone asks for permission first, then it completely depends on you whether you are comfortable with it or not. If it is a yes then you can give them a nod in rubbing pregnant bellies or else you can strictly say ‘no’ to them.

Pregnancy is a very sensitive issue to many women. They remain vulnerable both mentally and physically during this time and so whatever suggestions and other advices one wants to give them, they should be very careful about it. In fact, it is better not to interfere much.