3/10/2007

Do shops think about pregnant women ?

My wife is currently four and a bit months pregnant. We went shopping today for nothing in particular, but it is only when you shop with a pregnant woman that you notice some bizarre things.

Firstly, why have NEXT moved their maternity clothes from the women's section to the children's section ? There are NO CHANGING ROOMS in children clothes department, so to change something on she has to go down a floor to the women's department to try something on. If NEXT knew anything about pregnancy they would know that stairs are just about the most tiring thing for a pregnant woman. Such stupidity from NEXT.

Secondly, football turnstiles are useless for a pregnant woman. I think they highlight just how much football clubs are still built and set up for men. My wife now has to go in through another door in a different part of the stand (in the hospitality area), go up a lift, then be let out through another door. Why don't they have just one turnstile for partially disabled, pregnant, large or elderly people who they know will find turnstiles awkward ?

Lastly, shop toilets. I think we all know that they are wither on the very top floor or hidden in the basement, but pregnant women and people with young children really do need to use toilets more often than most and it seems like a constant search for toilets whenever we are in Norwich.

I know that some organisations come up with charts and tables showing which shops are best for disabled people, blind people, etc, etc, but why has nobody come up with a simple set of helpful ideas for shops so they can make pregnant women's lives easier ?

6 comments:

Sir Edward Heath said...

Couldn't agree more. Congratulations on the pregnancy. My best wishes to Mrs Norfolk Blogger and Tiny Norfolk Blogger.

Anonymous said...

I am also pregnant - early stages -and have to agree, it's knackering, stairs are the worst and no one really thinks that much about the needs of pregnant women.

However, speaking of not thinking about people's needs, when are the Lib Dems going to start doing more for young (and working) families? I currently judge Labour the best when it comes to working mothers - maternity leave/pay, child benefits, trusts and working families tax credits. You can't beat it.

Is it because the Lib Dems are male/gay man dominated?

From a newly pregnant working woman in her late '20s.

Nich Starling said...

I disagree about the party being male/gay men dominated, particularly at a local level. of the council group I am part of, nearly half are women.

I think are policies are develping more on the family side of things. Certainly our commitment to nursery education and education in general should be valued more, but like everyone else, we could do more.

Flat Out said...

Male/gay dominated?? Hmm. The words 'get','over' and 'it' spring to mind... ANON.

Congratulations to you both!

And keep fighting for the huge swathes of the population who find 'access'is a real concern and not a political trend.

Anonymous said...

You could definitely do more on it. Labour are leagues ahead of you at the moment. I'm glad to see some of you are trying though Norfolk Blogger.

Nice to see your Party members are as pleasant and courteous as ever when blogging Flat Out. Such an intelligent way to win an argument, I don't think. You must be so bad at taking any slight criticism of the Party, however justified.

I'm just going by what I have read on other blogs about Party composition. It doesn't take a huge amount of intelligence to realise that a Party that lacks consideration on issues that fundamentally concern women probably doesn't have many among its numbers.

Finally, access is a real concern for pregnant women like me and I would push every political party to do more on it to raise the standards - by access I include working and financial arrangements especially with the current declining birth rate and tendency for many women to leave it too late.

...Or is Flat Out so completely delusional and does he have such a limited understanding of the symptoms of pregnancy that he believes as a non-pregnant man he would actually care more about access and what the political parties are doing about it than a woman who is currently pregnant? Laugh out loud!

Anonymous said...

As a farther-to-be, with a pregnant wife I have to agree that access is a real pain. It's the little things like stairs, loo's etc that you never think of as a guy that suddenly become a real issue when shopping with a pregnant partner. I find myself noting where the loo is as soon as I walk through the shop door.

As for the gay/male domination thing - I certainly got the impression from the 5 or so conferences I've been to that the gay element of the party are certainly a dominating force.

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