The pregnancy announcement and birth that none of us needed
It's a sad day when you're triggered by a cartoon pig...yet here we are
Hello friends! Hope you had a good long weekend (for our UK readers). Today I’m talking about a cartoon. Yep, a cartoon. That has upset plenty of people in the TTC community. You guessed it, Peppa Pig.
I’ll be back on Friday when I’ll be talking about recurrent miscarriage. That newsletter will be for our paying subscribers so do upgrade if it’s something you’d like to read.
I don’t know about you, but I always find pregnancy announcements harder and more triggering when I’m not expecting them. The ones that come out of the blue and you just weren’t mentally prepared for (because we all have a little list in our heads of people we know who are probably trying, let’s be honest). So I think this is maybe one of the reasons (there are many more than one) that Mummy Pig’s pregnancy has been hard to watch. BECAUSE SHE IS A CARTOON PIG. WTAF. None of us, none of us saw this coming and thought we needed to brace ourselves.
If you’ve been living under a rock and missed this extremely weird bit of news, Mummy Pig, the mother of Peppa Pig – the porcine cartoon character and star of the eponymous mega hit – has just had another baby. But weirder still, this birth hasn’t been in the TV show, oh no, it’s been on the actual news.
The news presenters of Good Morning Britain staged an interview with her to announce the pregnancy – she even wafted a scan picture around. Then she had a gender reveal party at Battersea Power Station, with its famous chimneys lit up in blue and pink and exclusive interview in Grazia about it. Then, last week, the birth of Evie Pig was reported across the media landscape in this strange semi-serious way. The marketing team from Hasbro (which bought Peppa Pig in 2019 for £3.3bn) has lost its mind.
You can picture the scene in the boardroom. “Lads, lads, I’ve got an idea – let’s pretend she’s an influencer and get her on all of the morning show couches!” “Ohhhhh we could dress her up like other famous celebrity pregnancy shots!” “LET’S TAKE HER TO BATTERSEA FUCKING POWER STATION!” Chortle chortle. And it actually happened. News media across the land thinks it’s cute and goes along with it.
They’ve even got a commercial deal with Jeep, which saw the Daily Mail announce that Mummy and Daddy Pig were gifted a new 4x4 after the birth. Which is when the penny drops about who this is actually for. Do kids give a flying f*ck about pregnancy announcements? Or get the celebrity recreation shots? Or know what a gender reveal party is? No, I’d wager they don’t. So it’s for the parents. All in a bid to market a Jeep? Seriously?
It’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. And they have. We know that one in six couples in the UK will struggle to conceive. The infertility community is rightly pissed off by it all. They’re already dealing with announcements from left, right and centre. Do they need a fake one too? ALL OVER THE NEWS.
“Triggered AF by a cartoon pig,” said one person on Insta when I asked how people felt about it. “Even a pig managed to get it right,” said another. “I saw her announcement in my feed after a loss,” came one response. Two, TWO people said they were sad because it was their girl name that they wanted to use if they managed to conceive. It just all feels so unnecessary.
Then there’s the fact that “she gave birth” in The Lindo Wing, the posh private maternity ward at St Mary’s Hospital in West London where the royals have their offspring. Where’s the support for the NHS, eh? Pretty insensitive at a time when the country is on its knees from the cost of living crisis.
This isn’t the first time I’ve taken umbrage with Peppa Pig, I won’t lie. As someone who has sat through a fair few episodes, I hated the stereotyped gender roles. Mummy Pig is always doing household chores. Daddy Pig is always off to work (and is a bumbling idiot). We know he’s an architect. But we have no idea what Mummy Pig does for work – apparently it's not important enough for us to know.
One writer suggested that this new storyline and over-the-top marketing campaign is actually pro-nationalist propaganda from the powers that be, desperately trying to encourage us to have more kids. Dark. I like it. Wouldn’t put it past Hasbro.
And another thing
Loved this piece in The Guardian about what to say, and not to say, to friends and colleagues going through IVF, not least because we get a mention.
Anyone considering doing IVF solo to start a family might be interested in this event being co-hosted by Paths to Parent Hub and The Stalk and I.
As I sit down to share my story, I am overwhelmed with emotions, reflecting on the incredible journey that has brought me to where I am today. My name is Amelia, and I am a testament to the power of nature and the resilience of the human spirit. For years, my husband and I struggled with infertility, facing countless disappointments and heartbreaks. But today, I hold my precious child in my arms, conceived through the miraculous power of herbs.
The journey began over five years ago when my husband and I decided to start a family. We had been married for a few years, and everything seemed perfect, but month after month, I would discover that I wasn't pregnant. As the months turned into years, our excitement turned into frustration, and our hopes began to dwindle. We visited numerous hospitals, consulted with specialists, and underwent countless tests, but the diagnosis was always the same: our chances of conceiving were slim.
The emotional toll was immense. I felt like a failure, and the pressure from family and friends only added to our stress. We tried every medical treatment available, from fertility drugs to IVF, but nothing seemed to work. It was as if our dream of having a child was slipping further and further away.
One day, a close friend suggested that we try herbal remedies. At first, I was skeptical, having relied on modern medicine for so long. However, desperation had taken over, and I was willing to try anything. We began our search for the right herbs, consulting with herbalists and reading about various natural remedies.
The herbs we used were carefully selected based on their properties to enhance fertility. There was maca root, known for its ability to balance hormones; chasteberry, which supports ovulation; and red clover, rich in isoflavones that promote reproductive health. We prepared the herbs according to the herbalist's instructions and started our treatment.
The journey wasn't easy. There were times when we doubted the effectiveness of the herbs, and the long history of medical failures made us question whether this would work. However, we were determined to give it our best shot. We combined the herbal treatment with a healthier lifestyle, eating better, exercising regularly, and managing stress.
Months went by, and while we didn't see immediate results, I began to feel a change within myself. My menstrual cycle became more regular, and I felt more energized and positive. Then, one morning, I woke up with a strange feeling—a feeling that something was different. I took a pregnancy test, and to our absolute shock, it was positive!
The joy that followed was indescribable. We couldn't believe that after all the struggles, we were finally going to be parents. The pregnancy was a blessing, filled with moments of happiness, anticipation, and, of course, some challenges. But through it all, we felt a sense of peace and gratitude, knowing that our child was conceived naturally, through the power of herbs.
On February 23 2025, we welcomed our beautiful baby into the world. Holding our child in our arms for the first time was a moment of pure bliss. It was as if all the tears, prayers, and hopes had culminated in this one perfect moment. We named our child Luca, which means "gift of God" in our native language, because that's exactly what our child is—a gift from above, conceived through the miraculous power of nature.
Looking back, I realize that our journey to parenthood taught us patience, resilience, and the importance of faith. While the medical community may not fully understand or acknowledge the power of herbs in fertility, our experience speaks for itself. The herbs worked for us when nothing else did, and for that, we are eternally grateful.
If you're reading this and facing similar challenges, I want you to know that there is hope. Don't give up. Explore all your options, including natural remedies. While herbs may not be the solution for everyone, they were for us, and that's all that matters.
In conclusion, I want to express my deepest gratitude to the herbalist who guided us, to the natural world that provided the herbs, and to God, who blessed us with this precious gift. Our story is a testament to the power of nature and the human spirit's ability to overcome adversity. We hope that our journey will inspire others to explore natural solutions and never lose hope in their quest for parenthood. You can yours from them, this is their email contact, oceanviewtraditioncentre@gmail.com
Thank you for writing this blog, Gabby. I feel so validated that I wasn’t the only one with a strong reaction.🧡🐷