How To Hide Your Pregnancy: Tried and Tested Tips

Despite being a mega exciting time, you might feel the need to hide your pregnancy for just a few more weeks. Even though you’re not showing yet (although you might feel a bit bloated), the fact that you can think about nothing else but the tiny baby growing inside you can make you feel like you’re walking around with “I’M PREGNANT!” tattooed on your forehead. 

If you’re at a life stage where pregnancy feels predictable (perhaps people know you’ve been trying, maybe you’ve recently got married, maybe all your mates have just had babies), it’s true that people may well be looking for signs. After all, the human race are pretty nosy and, while we might know it’s not really OK to speculate about people’s reproductive systems, it still happens. If your pregnancy will be more of a surprise, chances are nobody suspects a thing. 

Either way, you still might well want to hide it. Those early weeks can be full of anxiety (and nausea) and, while many of us confide in a select few loved ones, hardly anyone is ready to broadcast the news willy-nilly. So, here are a few tips on keeping, well, mum… 

Should I keep my pregnancy a secret?

Ultimately, whether or not you want to keep your pregnancy to yourself is entirely your decision. It’s generally commonplace to keep your pregnancy under wraps until your 12-week scan. This is because chances of any complications drop significantly at that point. 

But, sometimes the excitement is just too much! There’s definitely a middle ground between buying a billboard in the middle of Piccadilly Circus and concealing the state of your uterus like a government-graded secret. If you want to spill the beans a little earlier to your nearest and dearest, there’s no rule to say you can’t. In fact, there are no rules at all. Do what you feel is best!

How to hide your pregnancy from your parents

If you’ve continued scrolling, we’re going to assume you’re foregoing the billboard and keeping things a little more under wraps. Hiding your pregnancy from your parents can vary in difficulty, depending on your proximity, closeness and how observant your parents can generally be. 

At 9 weeks, you’re highly unlikely to be showing - but you might feel different, which can make you self-conscious. Avoiding jeans and tight tops will help, as will wearing patterns that skim over your body.

Suddenly dressing like you’re 8 months pregnant is a surefire way to get everyone, parents included, speculating, so avoid the dungarees or smock dresses for now - unless it’s the kind of thing you wear all the time, of course.  

How to hide your pregnancy at work

Hiding your pregnancy at work is very dependent on the sort of work you do. If you’re tucked up working from home, tapping away at your laptop, you’ll have a much easier time hiding your growing bump than someone on their feet all day. 

Either way, you might well be at peak nausea right about now, which can be really hard to hide. You may even be feeling so rubbish that you need time off - in which case, if you have a friendly relationship with your manager, it could be worth letting them know you’re pregnant. A good manager will support you and even cover for you. And it will also reassure them that you’re not unwell for a less happy reason. 

How to hide your pregnancy from your friends

If friends have noticed that you’re lacking energy or looking a bit rough, hopefully, they will be too polite to question it (to your face, anyway…) but remember that one of the strange upsides of the weirdness of the last few years is that it’s become more acceptable to just say no when you’re not up for a particular social occasion. You can get away with saying you’re too tired, or have too much work on, or just don’t feel like doing something.

How to avoid alcohol when you’re hiding your pregnancy

If you’re rarely seen without a glass of prosecco in your hand, this can be a tricky one, but there are a few creative ways you can avoid alcohol without feeling like you’ve put out a global pregnancy alert. 

Suddenly becoming extremely generous and being the one who gets the drinks in is one technique, as your straight tonic water or alcohol-free beer will go undetected if you’re the one doing the ordering. 

Unless you’re with very close friends (or hang out with people with seriously inappropriate social skills…), even if they suspect you might be pregnant, they won’t be so bold as to say anything, so don’t panic.

How to hide your pregnancy at a wedding

If you’re being catered for at a wedding or dinner party, it can be trickier. Getting your partner or a trusted friend to do some stealth drinking from your glass can work (even if they end up getting a little tipsier than planned). If you’re at a venue, you could even discreetly tip off the serving staff to avoid top-ups. For other occasions, feigning a hangover or saying you have to work later could be worth a go, even if you feel guilty about lying. 

Ultimately, this unsettling, secretive bit of pregnancy will be over in the blink of an eye, so it’s really just a few weeks of acting odd and lying low (if you feel the need to). If it coincides with big social occasions, it can be a tricky one to navigate but, guess what? If your friends or family ARE speculating, it doesn’t really matter - and they’ll still be just as excited when you tell them for real (with a side order of smug if they suspected all along…).