Woman's List Of Reasons To Never Have A Kid Sparks Honest Dialogue About The Reality Of Pregnancy
The list includes everything from morning sickness to a condition that turns your fingernails black.
TikTok A new TikTok trend has emerged where people are compiling lists of every pregnancy-related health scare to remind themselves never to get pregnant.
While this began as a joke, doctors are now praising the trend for educating moms-to-be on pregnancy experiences they would otherwise have no warning of.
Yunuen Arias started this trend on her TikTok account Yuniquethoughts, posting what people refer to as “the list” — a 20-plus page document where she adds new pros and cons to having children.
She bullets to the lists based on personal experience, or interactions on TikTok where people tag her under videos of pregnancy horror stories.
Her extensive list of pregnancy pros and cons has helped other women learn about having kids/
According to BuzzFeed, Arias knows a lot about children because she's studying early childhood education.
On her list are over 350 pregnancy cons – and only 35 pros – which include things like “kids be funny I guess.”
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The cons list has everything from mundane pregnancy symptoms, such as morning sickness, constant urination, and fatigue, to rare and terrifying complications such as melanonychia — a condition where your fingernails turn black and your pelvis risks cracking.
The list begins simply, with 1. Baby parasite. 2. Everyone will know you did the nasty. 3. You can be allergic to pregnancy.
Under a section that is sub-headed "during birth," things get even scarier.
134. Uterine trauma (your uterus could rupture). 135. Projectile vomit (while you're pushing out the gremlin). 136. Hemorrhage. 137. Your partner might faint from watching the above.
Items on the lists come from videos she is tagged in, which she stitches with screen recordings of her opening her iPhone notes app and adding reasons to the list.
Of the many women who post videos on the app asking, “where’s that one girl with the list of reasons to not have kids?”, one woman showed her torn earlobe that was caused by her child ripping out an earring.
Another user posted a TikTok including a tweet that said “I will never fully recover from my daughter pulling down my shorts and exposing my bare a-- and p---- in the middle of Panera Bread this morning."
Arias responded with a video of her scrolling down the long lists of cons, and adding the reason to end the list.
Daily Mail writes that some believe because the list contains rare conditions, it “relies on fear-mongering to deliver an anti-child agenda.”
Others in the medical field who know how dangerous and sugar-coated the experience of pregnancy can be, believe the list is a good way to spread awareness among women.
One person on TikTok says “Pregnancy is romanticized far too much so i love the list. it shows the reality of what can happen.”
She unintentionally timed her creation of the list a few months before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Though Arias meant for the list to be light-hearted and not political, it can work to highlight the life-threatening health risks involving pregnancy and birth. It's a great way to start the conversation that pregnancy is not always romantic, but very dangerous.
Arias hasn’t posted on TikTok since August, but she has added the list to her website for anyone who wants to read it.
Maddie Haley is a writer for YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers pop culture and celebrity news.