Can you get student discount on maternity bras?

So I found my yearbook the other day. Just the Year 11 one, I hated most of my sixth form so didn't want to spend money on fifty pages of them gloating about how they're all going to the same uni. I always found that a bit weird. As well as taking a few moments to glance over old friends, enemies and teachers who I fantasised about hitting in the head (the maths and science departments, thanks for making three years of my life hell), another thought crept into my head. How many of these people have kids now!?

I mean there's always was going to be a couple of girls that got knocked up; if you're shagging around from Year 9 there will always be some spunk that sticks but considering we're twenty one years of age, it's a bit scary to realise that some of these people have two children. Two! We're twenty one!

It's not even stopped at people I went to school with. It's girls at uni too. One of my best friends from high school fell pregnant in her second year. Cute kid and everything if that's what rocks your boat, personally I'd rather choke. A very good friend of mine has just found out she's due in February. She's supposed to be going into her final year. I mean congrats for her, I'm sure her and her fiance are over the moon but dude, haven't you got a final year at uni to be sorting? I know of one woman in her mid 20s who just earned her MA in English Literature, an incredible achievement, and she's decided to go and get knocked up and not go back to work for a while. She used to be really career driven but now boom, baby takes over. Anyone else think it's a bit of a waste? 

You know people have that nightmare in speaking in public and realising they have no clothes on? I get that sense of panic when I dream about being pregnant. It'd  be my worst nightmare. Aside from the vanity and hormonal side, not to mention the fact I'd make an atrocious mother, I don't want to lose the freedom university gives me. Which is why it shocks me that my girlfriends, who were so excited for the fun and freedom of uni, find themselves getting pregnant and happy about it. Really? Now? Your whole life is just taking shape. And you're giving that up?

Why the rush?

This isn't the 1930s. We've been told we can go to school and study whatever we want to and become engineers or poets or astronauts or whatever when we're older.  It's not a case of hey, get your BA/BSc and then pop one out, we can do more than that. Can't you just wait? Why do you want to do your dissertation in maternity trousers and sit your finals craving coal? No going out and having fun like a normal student for you, you've got a bump to protect.

I'm not totally opposed to child bearing. I used to want one once upon a time, but then I got a taste of freedom. I acknowledge that people may think this is selfish. And to them, I say bollocks. We have enough people in the world, I don't want a child I'm going to resent and I can barely look after myself, let alone some screaming thing that wants to attach itself to my nipple at 2/4/6am. I can also do without your judgemental looks when I shop. I want to spend my money on bags and shoes, not bottles and steriliser and I'm going to spend my time acting like a regular twenty one year old. Ie, not at a doctors getting any activity in my uterus filmed.

I was always told I'd look back at uni with the fondest memories. Pregnancy is brutal and something tells me these girls don't expect that; why put those memories in there? Another thing I don't get is how these girls think they'll be financing their babies. I've seen girls try and justify spending an extra 40p on wine. Babies are expensive. Oh and the fuckers leave stretchmarks so no sexy rave outfits for you again.

In the end, as much as we want to think otherwise, we can't have our cake and eat it too. Women's lib is great but we do still have to fight to get the same recognition as men. And frankly, a newborn on the CV who are you trying to kid?

Should I get pregnant (I'd say god forbid but you never know I may have an ovary ping one day) I want it to happen when I'm financially secure, in a lasting relationship and once I've had at least a good stab at my career. It may be arrogant to speak on everyone's behalf but really, there is better timing to inflict your offspring on the world. Also, please stop putting your sonogram pictures on Facebook. Creepy.