Grrr....Do I have to fawn over pregnant women?

Is it REALLY necessary for me to fawn all over a woman when she tells me she is pregnant?

We have a new staff member at my office. She walked by my desk (which is on the way to the ladies room) and introduced herself like so :

"Hi, I'm Betsy...You might see me running to the bathroom a lot, because I'm pregnant"
My response? "That's fine. I'm Rachel, by the way"
She waited as if she expected me to say more. Personally, I didn't care to know about her frequent visits to the ladies room, nor do I particularly care that this woman (whom I've JUST met) is gestating.
A similar situation happened last week when I ran into an aqquaintance while visiting a mutual friend in the hospital. We were just sitting there chatting when she told me she was pregnant. I said congrats, but she then proceeded to go into detail about her morning sickness, bladdar pressure, and how she would try to elevate her pelvis after sex to ensure insemination. How am I supposed to respond to that?

AND, do I have to touch the bump? What's with ladies taking my hand and placing it on the bump????????

You don't have to do anything and you certainly don't have to touch someone that you don't want to touch.

The women are really excited and want to share their excitement with another woman. They assume, since you're a woman also, that you share the wonder, excitement and joy that they feel at the reproductive experience.

A lot of guys have a similar experience with cars and sports. We're expected to get all excited if someone gets a fancy car and there are a lot of us that see cars as a tool to get us from point A to point B - not an external indicator of our personality, but we do the ohhhh, ahhhhh thing because not doing it is considered weird. Don't even get me started on giving a crap about baseball.

You can make a stand and be the hateful woman that doesn't love babies or you can suck it up and pretend to think everything about breeding is a miracle, making your stand about something else.

This is one of those things I suggest you just accept as a reality of your gender and fake caring about so you don't have to deal with the whispers and attitudes over something minor.

Definitely make fun of them after the fact with your friends.

In the first situation, you could have just added congrats and left it at that. The second situation is totally overboard, you don't need to know about all the details of someone else's pregnancy. I would just change the subject.

Also, you should never touch a woman's belly unless she invites you to do so, and then only if you want to.

No, but it's an exciting time for them and some women are just giddy and want to share it with the world. Be polite but you're under no obligation to an over-the-top display of emotion. It gets better, just wait til the babies come. You'll have 1.5 million pictures thrust in your face and countless stories of every sneeze, fart, and poopy diaper. Take your detached approach now.

You do not have to fawn. Many pregnant woman wear it like a badge of honor and can't help themselves. They forget that not everyone cares.

I think you answered correctly. You could ask them nicely if they have any thoughts about population control or over-crowded towns/schools. That might shut them up.