Are we making pregnancy, birth and parenting sound too scary?

Becoming a parent can seem really daunting for a lot of people.

And while it is amazing that women are being so open and honest about pregnancy, birth and being a mother – is it possible that we have gone too far with the horror stories and are now actually scaring people away from becoming parents?

Laura McGoldrick thinks we have.

She revealed that when she was telling people she was pregnant with her now 9-month old daughter Harley, the general response from existing parents was rather shocking.

"A lot of people would go 'oh congratulations … get ready, it’s hard', 'you’re going to be tired', 'you’ll never brush your hair', 'you’ll forget to brush your teeth', 'you’ll lose all sense of yourself', 'goodbye to your marriage' … All these things," she said.

"I think we complain a lot, and it’s easy to complain, but it’s also easy to forget to mention the good stuff as well.

"I just wanted to say to all those expecting, who are having a baby, who are thinking about having a baby, who want to have a baby but have been terrified by what other people have said … It’s not scary.

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"It’s a wonderful, wonderful, thing. It’s an absolute privilege to be someone’s parent and I think people are forgetting to tell you that.

"Just because you have children, it doesn’t mean your life ends, yes it changes slightly but, but it doesn’t end."

Sarah Gandy agreed explaining how she grew up hearing how wonderful pregnancy was, but these days all she hears are the gruesome stories.

"Do you think the pendulum swung too far the other way?" Sarah asked,"Because everyone’s gone ‘oh, no, no, no let's be real’".

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"I feel like it has," Laura replied, "And I don’t want people to be scared of this wonderful, brilliant thing."

"It’s special and it’s exciting. It’s a little bit scary because you’re shaping a human being but it is awesome and I don’t want anyone to have that taken away from them, so don’t forget that what you’re doing is fantastic."