Not that it excuses it per se, but I think people do that because for them it’s a way to emotionally connect with both the parent and baby at the same time, because they can’t do so otherwise really. It’s often guys doing so I think, bc they never can experience what most of us can.

If so, then a parallel would be to ask if they want to have their navels rudely poked by random weirdos. They probably wouldn’t like that either. Or maybe another parallel is, to try to imagine if they had a kidney dialysis implant on their body and people wanna poke that. The kidney dialysis keeps a person alive, it ‘protects’ them. Likewise, I’d imagine that for those who can get pregnant, people poking their baby bump feels like hurting, a bit of a danger.

And then the question is, would they accept that? Most likely no. And even then, ask before touching (and accepting if no, goes a long way). When a pregnant friend asked me to touch her belly, I asked if she really was ok with that, and she was, but that’s because I asked. And had she said no, that’d have been okay too.

sidenote, fun idea: wearing a spike collar but it covers the entire baby bump. Touch it and you get the ouchie.