Preggophilia: Why Pregnant Women Should Not Share Baby Bump Photos Online
Like many other women, a pregnant woman from Sydney, Australia shared proud images of her “baby bump” online. This was before she found out about the horrifying porn fetish known as “preggophilia.”
In the old days, mothers tended to wear baggy dresses to hide their burgeoning body during pregnancy, but these days women are far more natural about the process and happy to brag about their soon-to-be-born babies. It has become a regular practice for pregnant mothers to share images of their burgeoning bump on social media for all their friends and family to see.
The mothers know how amazing the process of pregnancy is and they want to share the excitement with their friends.
Mum-to-be warns about posting baby bump photos online after discovery makes her ‘sick to her stomach’ https://t.co/9ZNoij6jZG
— Dis obey (@DisobeyMovement) June 15, 2016
As noted by the Mirror Online, Demi Moore possibly started the trend when she posed naked and pregnant for a Vanity Fair photo shoot back in 1991. Since then, it has become the norm to see such images popping up on Instagram and Facebook.
Megan Ireland, 25, a mother of two and a blogger, happily shared her own images on Facebook but was shocked to the core when she stumbled across some of her photos in the last place she could have possibly expected to see them.
Ireland found her images had been used on a pornography website in a disturbing trend known as preggophilia.
Preggophilia is reportedly a fetish involving women who are expecting a baby. At the most natural and beautiful time of their lives, women’s images are being used to fuel an erotic and disturbing fixation.
A search on Google reveals just such a website, dedicated to images of pregnant women of all ages.
Following her experience, Ireland shared her story in a Facebook post in an effort to warn other parents of the dangers of sharing such images on social media.
Titled, “That time my bump went viral in a not so good way,” she says in the post, “This bump pic along with around 15 other pictures of mine ended up on an online ‘preggophilia’ site. Which is a porn site for people who like pregnant women.”
“I see so many people upload their bump pics and now I just gasp and hope to god they don’t get into the hands of someone they shouldn’t.”
“We shouldn’t have to worry about people stealing our photos, but unfortunately it happens ALL THE TIME!”
When browsing Facebook, Megan saw that many people, including husbands, are sharing photos of their wives’ baby bumps and giving others access to the images. Women often share the photos of their pregnant colleagues.
”My baby bump photo went viral. But not in a good way.’ https://t.co/bJSlQfVbt8 #mmia pic.twitter.com/gU3TKjYJWl
— Mamamia (@Mamamia) June 14, 2016
Ireland said the feeling made her sick to her stomach, asking if she was to blame for this. However, she feels the fault actually lies with the people stealing the photos to use on the “preggophilia” pornographic websites.
As reported by the Sun, Ireland went on to say she didn’t care that someone had taken a screenshot of her photo to show someone else. She said it is what they did with her photo that made her “physically sick to my stomach.”
She asked why mothers, experiencing the most beautiful moments of their lives, should have to sit and worry about the sick practice of preggophilia when uploading bump photos to share with their friends on social media.
Ireland added, “Please be cautious about who follows/adds you. Block them if they look like a creepy MF.”
Any pregnant mothers reading this article, do you share photos of your baby bump online? Are you aware of the dangers of making those posts public?
[Photo by Phil Jones via Shutterstock]
