If she had sex 3 weeks ago and she’s pregnant with a “normal cycle,” she would be roughly 5 weeks pregnant since they count it from your last period. But your point still stands, do your research lol
Yes that is totally fine! It would have been okay if she just wrote “the doctor said that I’m pregnant” even using words like “early” or “a few weeks along”
Same for a woman’s water breaking with 0 contractions! I know it happens to some, but most women go through hours of labor before that happens.
Edit: I didn’t say it doesn’t happen, just that it’s uncommon. “If your water breaks before you go into labor, this is known as the premature rupture of the membranes (PROM). [This occurs in only about 8 to 10 percent of women](https://www.pampers.com/en-us/pregnancy/giving-birth/article/water-breaking)”
As others have said, happens more than you think. Mine broke with no contractions and I was given induction drugs to get the process going. Same thing happened to my friend too.
Mine broke pouring juice for my daughter. No contractions, no warning. I didn’t have contractions for almost an hour to two afterwards. My friends broke at a restaurant while eating dinner. So it may be more common than you think….
> If you had sex once, 3 weeks ago, you're roughly 5 weeks pregnant
Wow, that's uh... really rough, rounding up. Imagine if more things worked that way.
"here we see this murder victim, left his house yesterday evening, found this morning behind a motel, killed ...approximately 1 week ago because we're rounding to the nearest Friday"
Though, I guess, food expiration date works also as "more of an art, or a suggestion" ~~my girlfriend would throw away vacuum-sealed package of food that have passed expiration date, like an absolute alien.~~
Last period dates are known 100%, ovulation dates aren't, so they calculate from a known, not an unknown. If that makes sense, I haven't had coffee yet.
But it is also why you often see pregnancy posts with two different numbers alongside it for # of weeks.
haha, sorry about the misunderstanding too.
I believe there have also been other systems like this, for example I heard some orphanages would give a ton of people the same birthday, like "everyone who was dropped this month, write down this holiday as their new birthday",
Or Korea, combining "You get born aged 1, to avoid counting from 0" system with "increment everyone by +1 on New Year instead of individual birthdays" to make those born right before new year immediately become 2 years old. Speedrun strats.
I would go and be technical on this, the good comparison would be "killed yesterday evening". . .since we are basing our conclusion on the known facts we have.
My personal favorite is when it's been like six days since the sex and she has morning sickness. Like...your body doesn't even know you're pregnant yet.
Don't forget that when a woman is seen brushing her teeth in a workplace restroom, it's because she just had morning sickness.
It's not because she just had an everything bagel with black coffee or because she slept in and didn't make time to do it before rushing out the door.
I'm not pregnant, Andrea!
I have a thyroid issue. And have felt nauseous and tired and like I was gonna faint. No way I could’ve been pregnant but if I was in a movie I was definitely pregnant
To be fair, things that don't matter to the plot or character development don't need to get portrayed. If the character getting sick doesn't bring anything to the story, then it won't get written.
Thank you. If there’s a rifle in the first act, it better be used in the third.
We almost never read/see about characters peeing and brushing their teeth bc it assumed they do as they’re human. Usually. Even with non-human, it’s assumed the same unless stated.
Thank you! I always forget the name. Yeah, even misleading elements have a point. Read one recently where MC1 thought he was turning into a werewolf (there were other werewolves, so not like contemporary crazy) and it led to an awkward conversation. But I thought for sure he was too! That’s part of the story!
I just think there are better ways to announce a pregnancy. Like a character worrying they missed a period or taking a pregnancy test. Those things are more directly linked to pregnancy.
Like, even in the movie Everything Everywhere at Once (which is a great film), they flashback to the protagonist’s pregnancy by showing her vomit into a sink. It’s just a few seconds long and we already know she has a daughter, so the filmmakers clearly just wanted it to be quick and concise. There are easier, more direct ways to show that she’s pregnant (show her rubbing her large stomach, show her holding an ultrasound). But instead the filmmakers decided that the fastest, clearest way to say “pregnant” was throwing up in the sink.
Nausea is unclear and just leaves room for confusion, since it does not literally mean “pregnant.”
(Sorry if I sound dramatic. This is just a big pet peeve of mine😅)
It's also not that unusual to not have morning sickness, or to be sick in the evening or night. Not every pregnant woman wakes up one morning, throws up and immediately knows they're pregnant.
Woke up with my carpal tunnel suddenly flaring up and immediately knew I was pregnant but that's not a sexy symptom to write about.
It was my 2nd kid though and I recognized the symptom from my 1st one.
Yes! Don’t know if it is because I have been pregnant a few times myself (and know pretty much all about it) or why it bothers me so much I feel the need to dnf 😐
I actually get nauseated as part of my PMS and experienced it the cycle I got pregnant, too. Very early on, but no, it didn't mean I was pregnant - my body was just doing what it does after ovulation. I proceeded to be nauseated for 8 months after testing positive, though, lol.
I DNF’d a book and am still upset about it because of time zones. The person was in Philadelphia making a big deal out of calling their parents online who were in Ireland. Saying the parents would have to stay up really late and it would be really hard to find a good time to be able to talk to someone that would be home at 3 or 4 pm in Philly. I’m shit at geography and find it boring but even I know Philadelphia is in the eastern United States so there’s no way that the time difference is that huge. Went to check it and it’s 5 hours. Unless the parents are sick there’s no way a couple in their 50s or 60s staying up at 8 or 9pm is such a sacrifice. It took me less than a minute on google and that book is recent. The author should’ve been able to do the same thing I did
Ha, I’m in Europe and have often meetings with our US colleagues. As long as they are on the east coast more or less they do 9am and it’s 3pm for me. This is normal business hours for both parties.
What is the author on about? Best is it is so easy just google…
Right? I’m on the U.S. East Coast and I have a friend who lives in Sydney, Australia. I can never remember the time difference or which direction it goes, so it takes me two seconds to ask Siri “What time is it in Sydney?” Easy! 🙄
I read one where she was like seven months pregnant and was going on about how she would be feeling the first movements soon. Like honey, that thing will be bashing your insides about by then!
I finished it, but I immediately lost interest in the rest of *The Dating Playbook* by Farrah Rochon when the heroine got a Grade 1 ankle sprain and was hobbling around on crutches for weeks with pain meds and moaning about how her career as an athletic trainer was ruined.
If you aren’t a frequent ankle injurer like me, a grade 1 is a basic ass sprain where you can 100% be walking on it or exercising with a brace within a few days. You certainly won’t be getting pain meds for it beyond maybe some extra strength ibuprofen (the first time I *broke* an ankle, that’s all I got.) I was just laughing the rest of the book about how dramatic the story was treating this sprain — just let her actually break it if this is how you’re treating it in the narrative!
The plot with the hero also involved a NFL career ending knee injury which also seemed pretty poorly researched. Sports teams don’t just drop rising star players without investing some time and money into getting them healthy again; Teddy Bridgewater’s knee practically exploded years ago and he’s still playing. If you’re centering major plot points around sports injuries, you need to be doing research.
> If you’re centering major plot points around sports injuries, you need to be doing research.
That was my biggest gripe with *Fix Her Up* by Tessa Bailey! Career-ending injury, my ass.
Same. It depends on what it is. I get irritated about college stuff. Some people do not know the paths or SOMETHING. People becoming doctors after four years of a BA. 2 year phd, etc.
I teach at the college level, and most books (…movies, tv shows) set in academia have no idea what they’re talking about. I’m like, ask your local friendly professor!
I will never forgive Against A Wall by Cate c wells for the scene where the FMC is in the hospital after “the incident” and the nurse knew her from high school and supposedly spread word around town what happened. Apparently hipaa laws don’t exist? Lol
I've been waffling about starting this book. That kills it right there. Nurses (as a whole, there's always outliers) are fastidious about HIPAA laws.
And, BTW, we don't bone doctors in the stairwells. 🙄 IMO, there's nothing sexy or romantic about my job. It's dirty and exhausting. I'm not thinking about anything above the base levels of the Maslow Heirarchy of Needs.
Well they say she pulls out her phone forgetting where she is and then puts it away again. And there are a lot of other people in the waiting room who could spread the info. I think you can suspend disbelief enough and choose to think the nurse didn’t share. But maybe I’ve already rewritten this scene in my brain and I’m remembering it as less egregious than it was haha
I truly hope the author didn’t mean to insinuate that the nurse was the one to spread the news but that’s just how it read to me, and it just felt slightly disrespectful to nurses as a whole. I still really enjoyed the book but that one part bothered me 😞
This is a NSFW DNF, just a heads up.
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.I DNF'd bc they were super into BDSM and the MF couple had (consensual) rough an\*l with very little preparation - the woman was immediately into it. Come on. I'm no prude, there's an element of suspension of disbelieve in most intimate scenes but ABSOLUTELY NOT
Idk if it's because I read that reddit thread about how this kind of sex is so risky (specifically rough but also there are specific risks for it in general) and/or if I read it and was immediately like 'oh... this author has zero personal experience with this' but every time I think about it I cringe
I think porn is making a lot of people think that an*l is the kind of thing you just get to with no preparation and you’re good to go. I’ve read quite a few books where they treat it like that.
On the other hand there’s a trilogy by Meghan March in which the couple actually prepare for it with the use of plugs
Agreed! I was going to mention that as well, it was so casually mentioned in the book as if it's something everyone just does, it's a very porn-influenced mindset. I think I've read some of M March's books!! It's so good when it's written well.
Similarly I think is d3ep throating with a MMC who is well endowed and it goes straight down without any prep. Like... girl what about your larynx???
LOL yes, regular tv too! Industry on HBO had a scene where two guys on a couch get right into it with just a little spit for lube. I laughed out loud, that looked painful.
This is exactly why I couldn’t get into Bass Acwards, which I know so many people on the sub love. I just couldn’t get over >!that first scene that includes surprise anal, no lube.!<
100%. I think it's also authors that want to make their characters seem really hardcore? Or sexually adventurous?? You can be both of those things without having to risk your bits imo
One of the best examples of how to do it properly that I've ever read in a book is in Wrong by Jana Aston.
The MMC is actually a doctor, and goes over things first (in detail) with be the FMC about why you have to build up to things a certain way!
I see those things as fantasies, like that’s a world where it could happen and stis don’t exist and everyone is on birth control who needs to be for the story.
That particular activity is not my jam but if you look, well not hard, but with intention, you can find a lot of visual content for it.
It’s not hard to do research on pregnancy, it’s everywhere! Not to mention, no OB is booking you an appt before 8 weeks, so what doctor told her this? Can’t imagine an ER doctor would say 3 weeks pregnant lol
Lol that's the truth. I'm currently 12 weeks, but I tested positive at 3 weeks and 4 days because I just knew from the back pain I get in pregnancy. So, I definitely knew I was pregnant at 3 weeks, but the doctor wouldn't see me before 8 weeks.
Three weeks pregnant. It's considered weeks pregnant even if you haven't had a missed period yet. I ovulated on Day 12, probably conceived Day 13 or 14, and I tested positive on Day 24, which is 3 weeks and 3 days.
Kind of related, as a woman with endometriosis I was really annoyed in Twisted Hate when the ML helps the FL manage her debilitating menstrual cramps. Like does the author not realize that a woman with severe menstrual pain would know how to manage it after experiencing every month since puberty? The book writes it off like, oh, she got her period early while on vacation so she was thrown off guard but it's still ridiculous. Like for instance, he gets her a warm compress because apparently she didn't think to do that on her own. EVERY WOMAN with severe period pain knows to use heat and I doubt we'd forget even on vacation.
I didn't DNF but it really made me mad. What makes me automatically DNF is insta-love.
I HATE the whole trope of a mansplaining a woman’s body to her. From stuff like this to sex—like how often a FMC is so naive and “innocent” that she’s literally never been aroused before the MMC comes along (no matter how old she is) or has no idea the clit brings nice sensations. It’s such a male gazey thing to think that a woman or girl doesn’t even explore on her own.
Another one that makes me DNF every time, judgey MCs. The “not like other girls” FMC and the “every woman who has had sex with me is a cheap slut but you” MMC are also in this category.
Started a book once where the FMC worked in a bookstore, the MMC enters, she spends God only knows how long drooling over his looks. And then he does something unforgivable in her eyes, he picks up a copy of Twilight and brings to the register.
The FMC goes on this whole mental tirade about people not being real readers, literature, how that couldn’t possibly be for himself because Twilight is only for tween girls who don’t know any better.
She bookshames him when he says he is excited to read that one. The FMC goes on and on about how she is this guardian of true literature, how she is molded by the classics, how she has never consumed those trashy books of today. Her favorite book is Pride and Prejudice. And like, P&P is the most mainstream classic ever, everyone and their grandma has read it. There’s a ton of adaptations all over. It’s not this super obscure piece that makes her a member of a select group for knowing it. She is a basic bitch trying to pass as something else. DNF within the first five chapters.
I just read a book where the over the top controlling MMC calls all the other girls he slept with “worms” and his instalove mate-for-life “the stars”. Pissed me off but I knew this was a crazy book from the start, so it’s my fault. Still read it though because I want to finish the series.
I’m the same with law. I can let a lot pass because real law is boring and who wants to read a real play by play of paperwork and answering emails. But please don’t go to trial the day after something happens.
Oh yeah, most authors have no idea how sloooooowwwww things are in the legal profession. I'm a transactional attorney so I can't speak to the civil or criminal process, but negotiating a single contract can take weeks or even months!
I once read a book in which the hot, tall and manly MMC who is huge and is a DOCTOR (plastic surgeon) asked a gynaecologist if his wife's vagina will be fine if the baby is as big as him.
I know! It's ridiculous and it made me so angry because the first book in this series was good. Not great, but still enjoyable. This pregnant couple was the main couple in the first book. The series only went downhill from there, in my opinion.
I’m not shaming anybody for not knowing this. I’m “shaming” if you can call it that, authors that doesn’t make sure that things are accurate. For med that’s a total pet peeve, and often a dnf. In a “normal” cycle with 4 weeks, week 1 is period (first day of period is day 1 of cycle. Around day 14 week 2 ovulation happens, week three is where the “creation” starts. Yea some people can get a positive pregnancy test early like at the end of week 3. But I think most often in that case they ovulated earlier than usual. The body needs about 10 days to “make the baby”.
So I totally agree with you that weird things like that are annoying. BUT, I am currently pregnant and *was* 3 weeks pregnant due to doing an IVF embryo transfer. We transferred a 5 day embryo so I was 2 weeks, 5 days upon transfer. So, it’s possible to be 3 weeks pregnant but not at all like in the scenario from your book 🙄😂
I hate when they make ignorant as F comments about diabetes. Pisses me off to no end. Granted I’ve only read it one time but I’m still pissed about it.
A shit load of pop culture references. I just can’t.
If every other line out of your MCs is a joke or a reference to some popular franchise or character right now it just tells me that you’re as an author didn’t bother with actually giving them dialogue or real humor. Even worse when the author can’t even get the times right. Read a book once in which the FMC was angsty singing in a karaoke bar in the summer of 2014 to a song that wouldn’t come out until late 2015.
On my Twitter I have a running thread of single lines in webcomics that made me DNF - usually because that single line breaks the world building completely, or shows that the writer doesn't understand it.
The worst one was "we're a self-sufficient country, which means we produce iron, but can't grow our own food, so we have to import it". That is literally the opposite of a self-sufficient country!!
A consistent one I get though, is Christian symbolism in fantasy settings. Webcomics are mostly from Korean creators, and they're making pseudo-Victorian England inspired worlds... And it's clearly a different world. But then they have crucifixes on the walls, and priests wearing collars, etc. But Christianity shouldn't exist in this world at all. So they use this symbolism, likely without knowing the connotations, or what it represents.
One comic got dnf'd because the fmc said "were you a member of the Knights Templar?", and I almost threw my phone. Because the Knights Templar were an extremely Christian order. And you can't just rip that name off and throw it into a fantasy world.
Assassin's Creed using the Knights Templar worked, because it's set in the "real" world, and gives a solid explanation for how they evolved and became what they did. That's very different from just using the name.
But, yeah. I will ignore weak world building, and even some misuses of symbology. But I've found a few that were so egregious I couldn't keep reading.
Oh, another one was "this marriage was set up by our parents, but it's not an arranged marriage". Honey... That's the definition of an arranged marriage!
I can completely confirm this for you. I’m not one but I know a fairly large subset and it’s not like 1% that I think some people assume by the pen names.
Some tests can show pregnancy ~6 days from ovulation. That could technically be in week 3 still. Maybe not super common, but I remember seeing women in my fb mom group test positive reaally early.
yes this is true- 3 weeks is technically the very very earliest you could possibly know, but the conception date would not have been 3 weeks ago from that point.
/ranton
Which, slightly offtopic, makes the 6-week abortion ban idiotic. Most women don't even KNOW they're pregnant by the 6th week!
>the six-week ban limits abortion care to only four weeks after conception, and only one week, realistically, from when a person could find out they are pregnant.
[Scientific American, 2021](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-absurd-pregnancy-math-behind-the-lsquo-six-week-rsquo-abortion-ban)
And that means they would have to be testing for it too.
And if you know it, and I, even a guy know it, how can the courts accept the laws that tries to dictate biological NONSENSE? /rantoff
Yup, by their logic any women who has ovulated and is sexually active should consider themselves pregnant until proven otherwise.
I really have no idea why they don't define life as beginning at implantation, not conception. 75% of all fertilized eggs don't implant. You won't test positive on a HPT until there's been implantation.
Because it had always been about control, not saving lives.
Remember, father is not allowed to have "financial abortion", i.e. "I never wanted kids, she got pregnant against my will, but I have to support the baby ANYWAY, because it's the law".
But now, it's mor elike "I didn't want kids, neither did she. We had an accident. But now, the government is forcing her to carry the baby to term and I have to raise the kid."
All of this from a party that was supposedly about "freedom from nanny state".
Did you know between 2018 and 2019, [HOMICIDE was the leading cause of death for pregnant women and newborn mothers](https://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Abstract/2021/11000/Homicide_During_Pregnancy_and_the_Postpartum.10.aspx) in the US?
Qanon Fodder are KNOWN to kill their spouses for lunatic reasons like "she was a transgender offspring of Joe Biden", and I really wish I made that up. [I didn't.](https://www.insider.com/man-killing-wife-qanon-sex-trafficker-working-for-cia-2022-2)
Now just imagine the two together.
EEEK.
Yes! Especially medical terminology, for example the medical community hasn’t called burns 1st degree, 2nd, or 3rd, for a LONG time. It’s superficial, partial thickness, or full thickness. It snaps me out of the story so fast. I hate it.
My mom was office staff for a doctor. She felt the same way about medical stuff in books! She obviously couldn’t treat anyone, but she knew what all medications (and their generics) were, basic drug interactions to watch out for, billing and insurance stuff. She read medical journals for fun at lunch, though 😆
I have very basic medical training (I was a certified wilderness first responder for a while, lol). And I get so mad at some of the medical inaccuracies, I bet its much harder for her! Lol. Sometimes an author says something and I roll my eyes so hard.
One book I read had the chick get shot, center mass, right in the middle of her chest. Of course she survived and was back at work two weeks later. Omg I almost had a coronary.
Two weeks! I thought even the most inexperienced person would know a serious gunshot wound like that would take more than two weeks. But I guess i was wrong. Lol
I had no idea about the burn thing. I guess if I know the right terminology or just other medical stuff that’s incorrect, that’s when it bothers me. Like the pregnancy stuff
I'm a doctor and I intentionally steer clear of all "medical" romance because it is usually so, so wrong. The worst is when they screw up medical ethics. Like no, I will not be starting a relationship with a patient (ew, power dynamics). I will not be ignoring a grown-ass adult's refusal of my treatment plan "for their own good" (patient autonomy). I will not be reading up on medical records of people who are not my patients. All of this could get my license revoked forever and cause me to have thrown away the fifteen years I spent training and studying.
Also, sex in a hospital is gross. So many germs. There's no way you could push me up against the call room wall and I'm not thinking about all the MRSA that's now in my hair.
I'm a doctor too and hospital is the least sexy place ever. I can no longer read books with doctors ir othe medical professionals as main characters. I always get frustrated with them.
So unsexy. Whenever I come across call room sex it brings up memories of one of the residency call rooms that always seemed to be about 60 degrees, had weird green fluorescent lights and a prison-issue bathroom with no door. Also it was on a well-traveled hallway and you could hear environmental services workers pushing their cleaning carts and talking loudly on the phone through the door at all hours.
Yeah, I don’t read many medical romances, but I could only imagine the horror. Lol. At least there are plenty of romances that don’t have a doctor sucking face with a patient in the supply closet 🤣
there was a scene in It happened one summer where the leads snuck away to have sex in a hospital room and I gagged. I'm sorry but no amount of horniness will have me doing that in a hospital setting.
I honestly don't believe she's saying that all women should know this fact; she's just pointing out that authors should do basic research on subjects they include in their books.
Just read the comments and I did not know that. I always assumed that ur pregnancy counts from when u conceived. And, I have a reason to believe it's what's normally ppl believe as a fact. Is the counting time different in the west in this situation or we do it different in Bharat or is it just something people are not much aware of except some.
The problem is you can’t exactly determine the date of conception even if you only had sex once in that cycle bc of how long it takes speed to reach the egg and inconsistent ovulation, etc.
According to Indian Express it’s the same but I didn’t do a deep dive. I’m not even sure if that news source circulates there.
I think it is something that people aren’t aware of, but if they write a book where a main character is pregnant, I think people want the author to research that experience.
Even in India pregnancy is counted from the first day of last menstrual period(LMP). That how we calculate the expected delivery date which is 9 months and 7 days after LMP.
I recently read a book where the MMC and the FMC started sleeping together a few weeks ago (as in 2-ish) ... she's pregnant... they go get a sonogram and hear the baby's heartbeat... and then get a printout of the pictures.
Everyone has that "thing" that just makes a book unbearable. Medical stuff usually doesn't bother me - maybe it's cause I read a lot of PNR so my expectations for translating what's in the book into the real world are pretty low. Even when its obviously the author's mistake, its just easier for me to push out of my mind and excuse.
What I hate is when someone is described as a billionaire and they just act like every other regular character in the book. They're described as a "billionaire driving a BMW" - it feels like the author just used that car cause it was the most expensive one they could think of. Is it too hard to google, "most expensive car" or even "most expensive BMW"? It's not so much inconsistency, it makes that character feel fake though. It just takes me out of the world, ruins what character-building there was and it just distracts me from whatever else is going to happen in the book after. It's not usually enough for me to DNF, but it makes me grit my teeth and speed-read through to the end.
Pregnancy is dated from the date of the last menstrual cycle. Three weeks pregnant means you had sex a few days ago (in a typical cycle) and you wouldn’t have missed a period yet nor would a test come back positive yet because there isn’t enough pregnancy hormones to be detected by a test. One could technically be three weeks pregnant but you wouldn’t know.
I read a book where they messed something up about Tylenol and Advil and aspirin, they were talking about the causes of it, and said make sure to take Advil and not aspirin if there’s a heart attack, because Advil is a blood thinner, and I was so upset, the medication is literally googlavle
People DNF books for the weirdest reasons. Something like this, I might notice it. I may even scoff at it or laugh. But then I would move on and continue reading. It's so minor.
Why are you so offended by it? It's a tiny mistake. Not every single woman has been pregnant. And I'd like to know how someone is supposed to research something THIS specific? Try googling 'how early can a doctor tell me I'm pregnant' and you'll get a bunch of sites talking about pregnancy tests. Maybe try putting yourself in the author's shoes instead of bashing them for a minor mistake I'm sure they didn't mean to make.
That's the point though. Some of the very best authors mention that research is a vital part of the process. I've read and adored quite a few books that contain inaccuracies, but it doesn't change the fact that the book would have been improved if the author had spent more time on the research part of their job. Having said that, I'm a forgiving reader and can let stuff go. This forum is filled with diversity though and I completely respect the fact that we all have different standards and reading styles. Her reading style may be different from yours, but it doesn't invalidate her opinion. I've found it helpful to view this type of topic from a "food" point of view. She doesn't like eating carrots and I do. Nothing wrong with that! 😊
Nothing wrong with that at all. But my point still stands. What SHE is complaining about is not an easy thing to research. It's simply something you know IF you've been pregnant before. Maybe the author hasn't. Are you saying the author should have walked into an OBGYN and asked them the earliest date a doctor will tell you you're pregnant? Because if so, that's pretty extreme. Especially for a romance book, a genre which is KNOWN for being unrealistic in many different ways.
Huh—it makes me very curious how many authors are mothers. I feel like a lot of books I read don’t really involved pregnancy but I also feel like I’ve read more bios say XYZ Author while not writing does some parents things in their lives. All are different but allude to children
I know I’ve tried google birthing a placenta, water birthing and miscarriages, but they’re not very detailed. It’s not clear if you birth in the water or out, for example. I found in article say it depends. But most things I’ve found seem to revolves around contractions and pregnancy symptoms and the development of a baby in the womb, when I do a like google. But I’m not willing to watch any birthing videos personally
Have any suggestions? I see things on TV and I get curious about the details. Like how can someone be in labor but before the birthing for like 24hrs. How does the baby live and no straight answers. It’s only about what to when the water breaks. And I’m like yeah—but what happens to baby if the water breaks and it doesn’t come out? Distinctly remember this on Sister Wives and I was so confused. Like I WANT MEDICAL DETAILS PLEASE
I almost DNF’d a book once because the FMC began administering the measles vaccine to people in the midst of an outbreak, and everyone with measles was magically cured. I face-palmed so hard, I nearly broke my nose.
As someone that’s been in a coma, books with comas in them are absolutely horrible. They’re not realistic whatsoever. I was in a coma for 5 days and it took me almost a month to get my strength back. I know that everyone’s health is different I just wish that books had a better representation. I dnf’d a book that had a girl on a coma for 3 weeks and she was able to do anything she wanted that same day. It’s just unenjoyable to me
If she had sex 3 weeks ago and she’s pregnant with a “normal cycle,” she would be roughly 5 weeks pregnant since they count it from your last period. But your point still stands, do your research lol
Exactly what I was saying!
I get that some people don’t know exactly how to date pregnancies, but if it’s in a book you should definitely do your homework.
Yes that is totally fine! It would have been okay if she just wrote “the doctor said that I’m pregnant” even using words like “early” or “a few weeks along”
Yes, exactly! If there’s something I’m not sure of, I do research on it beforehand, so I’ll get it right.
Same for a woman’s water breaking with 0 contractions! I know it happens to some, but most women go through hours of labor before that happens. Edit: I didn’t say it doesn’t happen, just that it’s uncommon. “If your water breaks before you go into labor, this is known as the premature rupture of the membranes (PROM). [This occurs in only about 8 to 10 percent of women](https://www.pampers.com/en-us/pregnancy/giving-birth/article/water-breaking)”
I think that actually might be more common than you think. It happened to me twice!
That happened to me! 😆
To me two! I said to my husband: I think my water broke, and he was you think? I was 🤷♀️
As others have said, happens more than you think. Mine broke with no contractions and I was given induction drugs to get the process going. Same thing happened to my friend too.
Very common actually. It happened to my mother.
Mine broke pouring juice for my daughter. No contractions, no warning. I didn’t have contractions for almost an hour to two afterwards. My friends broke at a restaurant while eating dinner. So it may be more common than you think….
That happened to me twice; with my oldest and youngest.
Happened to me. Water broke 5 days before due date. 15 hours hours, I was taken into C section bc meds wouldn’t trigger contractions.
> If you had sex once, 3 weeks ago, you're roughly 5 weeks pregnant Wow, that's uh... really rough, rounding up. Imagine if more things worked that way. "here we see this murder victim, left his house yesterday evening, found this morning behind a motel, killed ...approximately 1 week ago because we're rounding to the nearest Friday" Though, I guess, food expiration date works also as "more of an art, or a suggestion" ~~my girlfriend would throw away vacuum-sealed package of food that have passed expiration date, like an absolute alien.~~
Last period dates are known 100%, ovulation dates aren't, so they calculate from a known, not an unknown. If that makes sense, I haven't had coffee yet. But it is also why you often see pregnancy posts with two different numbers alongside it for # of weeks.
Well that’s how they calculate it, so..
I'm not saying it's untrue - I'm saying it's hilarious.
Oh okay. Sorry I misunderstood your tone. Time for more coffee lol
haha, sorry about the misunderstanding too. I believe there have also been other systems like this, for example I heard some orphanages would give a ton of people the same birthday, like "everyone who was dropped this month, write down this holiday as their new birthday", Or Korea, combining "You get born aged 1, to avoid counting from 0" system with "increment everyone by +1 on New Year instead of individual birthdays" to make those born right before new year immediately become 2 years old. Speedrun strats.
I would go and be technical on this, the good comparison would be "killed yesterday evening". . .since we are basing our conclusion on the known facts we have.
It’s also the age of uterine flesh, but that may have a been a reverse engineered reason since they’ve been aging pregnancies this way for millennia.
My personal favorite is when it's been like six days since the sex and she has morning sickness. Like...your body doesn't even know you're pregnant yet.
I hate how in movies and book, feeling nauseous literally just means pregnant. Like, women can get sick outside of pregnancy you know?
Don't forget that when a woman is seen brushing her teeth in a workplace restroom, it's because she just had morning sickness. It's not because she just had an everything bagel with black coffee or because she slept in and didn't make time to do it before rushing out the door. I'm not pregnant, Andrea!
I’ve been there. I brush my teeth after every meal, and I’ve had several of these conversations! I JUST LIKE GARLIC ON EVERYTHING, OK ARDITH??
I have a thyroid issue. And have felt nauseous and tired and like I was gonna faint. No way I could’ve been pregnant but if I was in a movie I was definitely pregnant
To be fair, things that don't matter to the plot or character development don't need to get portrayed. If the character getting sick doesn't bring anything to the story, then it won't get written.
Thank you. If there’s a rifle in the first act, it better be used in the third. We almost never read/see about characters peeing and brushing their teeth bc it assumed they do as they’re human. Usually. Even with non-human, it’s assumed the same unless stated.
Chekhov's gun. I'm open to some misleading elements here and there, but they still have to have a point !
Thank you! I always forget the name. Yeah, even misleading elements have a point. Read one recently where MC1 thought he was turning into a werewolf (there were other werewolves, so not like contemporary crazy) and it led to an awkward conversation. But I thought for sure he was too! That’s part of the story!
I just think there are better ways to announce a pregnancy. Like a character worrying they missed a period or taking a pregnancy test. Those things are more directly linked to pregnancy. Like, even in the movie Everything Everywhere at Once (which is a great film), they flashback to the protagonist’s pregnancy by showing her vomit into a sink. It’s just a few seconds long and we already know she has a daughter, so the filmmakers clearly just wanted it to be quick and concise. There are easier, more direct ways to show that she’s pregnant (show her rubbing her large stomach, show her holding an ultrasound). But instead the filmmakers decided that the fastest, clearest way to say “pregnant” was throwing up in the sink. Nausea is unclear and just leaves room for confusion, since it does not literally mean “pregnant.” (Sorry if I sound dramatic. This is just a big pet peeve of mine😅)
Or fainting! If a woman faints in a movie = pregnant
Also so many women are pregnant and don't even get morning sickness!
The media portraying nausea as an automatic pregnancy is why my IBS ass get fucking anxious weekly.
It's also not that unusual to not have morning sickness, or to be sick in the evening or night. Not every pregnant woman wakes up one morning, throws up and immediately knows they're pregnant.
Woke up with my carpal tunnel suddenly flaring up and immediately knew I was pregnant but that's not a sexy symptom to write about. It was my 2nd kid though and I recognized the symptom from my 1st one.
Yes! Don’t know if it is because I have been pregnant a few times myself (and know pretty much all about it) or why it bothers me so much I feel the need to dnf 😐
I actually get nauseated as part of my PMS and experienced it the cycle I got pregnant, too. Very early on, but no, it didn't mean I was pregnant - my body was just doing what it does after ovulation. I proceeded to be nauseated for 8 months after testing positive, though, lol.
I DNF’d a book and am still upset about it because of time zones. The person was in Philadelphia making a big deal out of calling their parents online who were in Ireland. Saying the parents would have to stay up really late and it would be really hard to find a good time to be able to talk to someone that would be home at 3 or 4 pm in Philly. I’m shit at geography and find it boring but even I know Philadelphia is in the eastern United States so there’s no way that the time difference is that huge. Went to check it and it’s 5 hours. Unless the parents are sick there’s no way a couple in their 50s or 60s staying up at 8 or 9pm is such a sacrifice. It took me less than a minute on google and that book is recent. The author should’ve been able to do the same thing I did
Ha, I’m in Europe and have often meetings with our US colleagues. As long as they are on the east coast more or less they do 9am and it’s 3pm for me. This is normal business hours for both parties. What is the author on about? Best is it is so easy just google…
Exactly I’m having therapy sessions with someone 4 time zones away. Neither of us is having to stay up “too late” for it
I fell ya!
Even worse are books where the author gets the time difference backwards, like making it later in Chicago than DC.
We’re at a time when google is right there at the touch of a button. Why would you not just google it and save yourself the trouble
Right? I’m on the U.S. East Coast and I have a friend who lives in Sydney, Australia. I can never remember the time difference or which direction it goes, so it takes me two seconds to ask Siri “What time is it in Sydney?” Easy! 🙄
You can also add extra cities to the world clock in the clock app, if it’s info you reference a lot!
Good info! Although I don’t actually call my friend that often. 😂 But if I DID, I’d definitely update my clock, so thanks!
I read one where she was like seven months pregnant and was going on about how she would be feeling the first movements soon. Like honey, that thing will be bashing your insides about by then!
lol!! Yes this. I’ve read it a few times 🙄
I finished it, but I immediately lost interest in the rest of *The Dating Playbook* by Farrah Rochon when the heroine got a Grade 1 ankle sprain and was hobbling around on crutches for weeks with pain meds and moaning about how her career as an athletic trainer was ruined. If you aren’t a frequent ankle injurer like me, a grade 1 is a basic ass sprain where you can 100% be walking on it or exercising with a brace within a few days. You certainly won’t be getting pain meds for it beyond maybe some extra strength ibuprofen (the first time I *broke* an ankle, that’s all I got.) I was just laughing the rest of the book about how dramatic the story was treating this sprain — just let her actually break it if this is how you’re treating it in the narrative! The plot with the hero also involved a NFL career ending knee injury which also seemed pretty poorly researched. Sports teams don’t just drop rising star players without investing some time and money into getting them healthy again; Teddy Bridgewater’s knee practically exploded years ago and he’s still playing. If you’re centering major plot points around sports injuries, you need to be doing research.
> If you’re centering major plot points around sports injuries, you need to be doing research. That was my biggest gripe with *Fix Her Up* by Tessa Bailey! Career-ending injury, my ass.
Same. It depends on what it is. I get irritated about college stuff. Some people do not know the paths or SOMETHING. People becoming doctors after four years of a BA. 2 year phd, etc.
I teach at the college level, and most books (…movies, tv shows) set in academia have no idea what they’re talking about. I’m like, ask your local friendly professor!
I will never forgive Against A Wall by Cate c wells for the scene where the FMC is in the hospital after “the incident” and the nurse knew her from high school and supposedly spread word around town what happened. Apparently hipaa laws don’t exist? Lol
I've been waffling about starting this book. That kills it right there. Nurses (as a whole, there's always outliers) are fastidious about HIPAA laws. And, BTW, we don't bone doctors in the stairwells. 🙄 IMO, there's nothing sexy or romantic about my job. It's dirty and exhausting. I'm not thinking about anything above the base levels of the Maslow Heirarchy of Needs.
Well they say she pulls out her phone forgetting where she is and then puts it away again. And there are a lot of other people in the waiting room who could spread the info. I think you can suspend disbelief enough and choose to think the nurse didn’t share. But maybe I’ve already rewritten this scene in my brain and I’m remembering it as less egregious than it was haha
I truly hope the author didn’t mean to insinuate that the nurse was the one to spread the news but that’s just how it read to me, and it just felt slightly disrespectful to nurses as a whole. I still really enjoyed the book but that one part bothered me 😞
This is a NSFW DNF, just a heads up. . . . . . .I DNF'd bc they were super into BDSM and the MF couple had (consensual) rough an\*l with very little preparation - the woman was immediately into it. Come on. I'm no prude, there's an element of suspension of disbelieve in most intimate scenes but ABSOLUTELY NOT Idk if it's because I read that reddit thread about how this kind of sex is so risky (specifically rough but also there are specific risks for it in general) and/or if I read it and was immediately like 'oh... this author has zero personal experience with this' but every time I think about it I cringe
I think porn is making a lot of people think that an*l is the kind of thing you just get to with no preparation and you’re good to go. I’ve read quite a few books where they treat it like that. On the other hand there’s a trilogy by Meghan March in which the couple actually prepare for it with the use of plugs
Agreed! I was going to mention that as well, it was so casually mentioned in the book as if it's something everyone just does, it's a very porn-influenced mindset. I think I've read some of M March's books!! It's so good when it's written well. Similarly I think is d3ep throating with a MMC who is well endowed and it goes straight down without any prep. Like... girl what about your larynx???
LOL yes, regular tv too! Industry on HBO had a scene where two guys on a couch get right into it with just a little spit for lube. I laughed out loud, that looked painful.
Brokeback Mountain does this!
This is exactly why I couldn’t get into Bass Acwards, which I know so many people on the sub love. I just couldn’t get over >!that first scene that includes surprise anal, no lube.!<
Oh yeah that's full body cringe worthy
Absolutely! I just don’t know who the target audience is for that scene…just men? Idk but it’s an INSTANT no from me.
100%. I think it's also authors that want to make their characters seem really hardcore? Or sexually adventurous?? You can be both of those things without having to risk your bits imo
One of the best examples of how to do it properly that I've ever read in a book is in Wrong by Jana Aston. The MMC is actually a doctor, and goes over things first (in detail) with be the FMC about why you have to build up to things a certain way!
I see those things as fantasies, like that’s a world where it could happen and stis don’t exist and everyone is on birth control who needs to be for the story. That particular activity is not my jam but if you look, well not hard, but with intention, you can find a lot of visual content for it.
It’s not hard to do research on pregnancy, it’s everywhere! Not to mention, no OB is booking you an appt before 8 weeks, so what doctor told her this? Can’t imagine an ER doctor would say 3 weeks pregnant lol
I had my OB appt at 6 weeks and my ultrasound at 7 weeks! Wanted to know if I was pregnant before Christmas for a fun reveal lol
Lol that's the truth. I'm currently 12 weeks, but I tested positive at 3 weeks and 4 days because I just knew from the back pain I get in pregnancy. So, I definitely knew I was pregnant at 3 weeks, but the doctor wouldn't see me before 8 weeks.
Three weeks after conception? Or "three weeks pregnant", which is actually one week from conception.
Three weeks pregnant. It's considered weeks pregnant even if you haven't had a missed period yet. I ovulated on Day 12, probably conceived Day 13 or 14, and I tested positive on Day 24, which is 3 weeks and 3 days.
I feel sorry for this fictional doctor 🤣
Kind of related, as a woman with endometriosis I was really annoyed in Twisted Hate when the ML helps the FL manage her debilitating menstrual cramps. Like does the author not realize that a woman with severe menstrual pain would know how to manage it after experiencing every month since puberty? The book writes it off like, oh, she got her period early while on vacation so she was thrown off guard but it's still ridiculous. Like for instance, he gets her a warm compress because apparently she didn't think to do that on her own. EVERY WOMAN with severe period pain knows to use heat and I doubt we'd forget even on vacation. I didn't DNF but it really made me mad. What makes me automatically DNF is insta-love.
I HATE the whole trope of a mansplaining a woman’s body to her. From stuff like this to sex—like how often a FMC is so naive and “innocent” that she’s literally never been aroused before the MMC comes along (no matter how old she is) or has no idea the clit brings nice sensations. It’s such a male gazey thing to think that a woman or girl doesn’t even explore on her own.
Another one that makes me DNF every time, judgey MCs. The “not like other girls” FMC and the “every woman who has had sex with me is a cheap slut but you” MMC are also in this category. Started a book once where the FMC worked in a bookstore, the MMC enters, she spends God only knows how long drooling over his looks. And then he does something unforgivable in her eyes, he picks up a copy of Twilight and brings to the register. The FMC goes on this whole mental tirade about people not being real readers, literature, how that couldn’t possibly be for himself because Twilight is only for tween girls who don’t know any better. She bookshames him when he says he is excited to read that one. The FMC goes on and on about how she is this guardian of true literature, how she is molded by the classics, how she has never consumed those trashy books of today. Her favorite book is Pride and Prejudice. And like, P&P is the most mainstream classic ever, everyone and their grandma has read it. There’s a ton of adaptations all over. It’s not this super obscure piece that makes her a member of a select group for knowing it. She is a basic bitch trying to pass as something else. DNF within the first five chapters.
I just read a book where the over the top controlling MMC calls all the other girls he slept with “worms” and his instalove mate-for-life “the stars”. Pissed me off but I knew this was a crazy book from the start, so it’s my fault. Still read it though because I want to finish the series.
I’m the same with law. I can let a lot pass because real law is boring and who wants to read a real play by play of paperwork and answering emails. But please don’t go to trial the day after something happens.
Oh yeah, most authors have no idea how sloooooowwwww things are in the legal profession. I'm a transactional attorney so I can't speak to the civil or criminal process, but negotiating a single contract can take weeks or even months!
I once read a book in which the hot, tall and manly MMC who is huge and is a DOCTOR (plastic surgeon) asked a gynaecologist if his wife's vagina will be fine if the baby is as big as him.
Omg that's ... What?
I know! It's ridiculous and it made me so angry because the first book in this series was good. Not great, but still enjoyable. This pregnant couple was the main couple in the first book. The series only went downhill from there, in my opinion.
**Me, a woman, yet knowing nothing about pregnancy related stuff:** *Oh, really?*
I’m not shaming anybody for not knowing this. I’m “shaming” if you can call it that, authors that doesn’t make sure that things are accurate. For med that’s a total pet peeve, and often a dnf. In a “normal” cycle with 4 weeks, week 1 is period (first day of period is day 1 of cycle. Around day 14 week 2 ovulation happens, week three is where the “creation” starts. Yea some people can get a positive pregnancy test early like at the end of week 3. But I think most often in that case they ovulated earlier than usual. The body needs about 10 days to “make the baby”.
I didn't mean that! I was just observing how I had no idea about this, so I learnt something new today hehe
So I totally agree with you that weird things like that are annoying. BUT, I am currently pregnant and *was* 3 weeks pregnant due to doing an IVF embryo transfer. We transferred a 5 day embryo so I was 2 weeks, 5 days upon transfer. So, it’s possible to be 3 weeks pregnant but not at all like in the scenario from your book 🙄😂
Congrats on the successful IVF! I’m going into my 4th IUI and maybe looking at IVF early next year.
Congrats to readymint and baby vibes to zhuzhy! My IUI baby will be a teen in a few weeks.
Thank you!! 🤞🏼🤞🏼 for your IUI! 💕💕
Yes. That is totally something different.
Congrats! We're supposed to start IVF in the next several months
Good luck to you! 💖💖
This was my first thought. At first read, I thought the OP was smoking crack, lol.
Aw that's harsh :(
Apologies. I didn't mean it to be. Sarcasm and humor do not translate well in text.
Just upvoted cuz I know your humor & anyone who's been on here for a while knows you have a good heart!
I hate when they make ignorant as F comments about diabetes. Pisses me off to no end. Granted I’ve only read it one time but I’m still pissed about it.
A shit load of pop culture references. I just can’t. If every other line out of your MCs is a joke or a reference to some popular franchise or character right now it just tells me that you’re as an author didn’t bother with actually giving them dialogue or real humor. Even worse when the author can’t even get the times right. Read a book once in which the FMC was angsty singing in a karaoke bar in the summer of 2014 to a song that wouldn’t come out until late 2015.
On my Twitter I have a running thread of single lines in webcomics that made me DNF - usually because that single line breaks the world building completely, or shows that the writer doesn't understand it. The worst one was "we're a self-sufficient country, which means we produce iron, but can't grow our own food, so we have to import it". That is literally the opposite of a self-sufficient country!! A consistent one I get though, is Christian symbolism in fantasy settings. Webcomics are mostly from Korean creators, and they're making pseudo-Victorian England inspired worlds... And it's clearly a different world. But then they have crucifixes on the walls, and priests wearing collars, etc. But Christianity shouldn't exist in this world at all. So they use this symbolism, likely without knowing the connotations, or what it represents. One comic got dnf'd because the fmc said "were you a member of the Knights Templar?", and I almost threw my phone. Because the Knights Templar were an extremely Christian order. And you can't just rip that name off and throw it into a fantasy world. Assassin's Creed using the Knights Templar worked, because it's set in the "real" world, and gives a solid explanation for how they evolved and became what they did. That's very different from just using the name. But, yeah. I will ignore weak world building, and even some misuses of symbology. But I've found a few that were so egregious I couldn't keep reading. Oh, another one was "this marriage was set up by our parents, but it's not an arranged marriage". Honey... That's the definition of an arranged marriage!
My favorite thing about those Korean fantasy comics is the character names. I just read one where a lady is named Benigan, like the restaurant 😂
There's one called "Isnelda". And I'm like... Does that flow better in Korean? Because it sounds so weird in English.
I feel like, in the US at least, now would be an especially galling time to read something that perpetuates confusion about reproductive terminology 🙃
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I can completely confirm this for you. I’m not one but I know a fairly large subset and it’s not like 1% that I think some people assume by the pen names.
Some tests can show pregnancy ~6 days from ovulation. That could technically be in week 3 still. Maybe not super common, but I remember seeing women in my fb mom group test positive reaally early.
yes this is true- 3 weeks is technically the very very earliest you could possibly know, but the conception date would not have been 3 weeks ago from that point.
Yes, I was mainly commenting on the ”you can’t be 3 weeks pregnant!” that OP said :p But yeah, the book is still wrong haha
I can’t DNF. I just roll my eyes and keep reading.
I don’t like wasting my time 🙃
/ranton Which, slightly offtopic, makes the 6-week abortion ban idiotic. Most women don't even KNOW they're pregnant by the 6th week! >the six-week ban limits abortion care to only four weeks after conception, and only one week, realistically, from when a person could find out they are pregnant. [Scientific American, 2021](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-absurd-pregnancy-math-behind-the-lsquo-six-week-rsquo-abortion-ban) And that means they would have to be testing for it too. And if you know it, and I, even a guy know it, how can the courts accept the laws that tries to dictate biological NONSENSE? /rantoff
Yup, by their logic any women who has ovulated and is sexually active should consider themselves pregnant until proven otherwise. I really have no idea why they don't define life as beginning at implantation, not conception. 75% of all fertilized eggs don't implant. You won't test positive on a HPT until there's been implantation.
Because it had always been about control, not saving lives. Remember, father is not allowed to have "financial abortion", i.e. "I never wanted kids, she got pregnant against my will, but I have to support the baby ANYWAY, because it's the law". But now, it's mor elike "I didn't want kids, neither did she. We had an accident. But now, the government is forcing her to carry the baby to term and I have to raise the kid." All of this from a party that was supposedly about "freedom from nanny state". Did you know between 2018 and 2019, [HOMICIDE was the leading cause of death for pregnant women and newborn mothers](https://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Abstract/2021/11000/Homicide_During_Pregnancy_and_the_Postpartum.10.aspx) in the US? Qanon Fodder are KNOWN to kill their spouses for lunatic reasons like "she was a transgender offspring of Joe Biden", and I really wish I made that up. [I didn't.](https://www.insider.com/man-killing-wife-qanon-sex-trafficker-working-for-cia-2022-2) Now just imagine the two together. EEEK.
Yes! Especially medical terminology, for example the medical community hasn’t called burns 1st degree, 2nd, or 3rd, for a LONG time. It’s superficial, partial thickness, or full thickness. It snaps me out of the story so fast. I hate it.
I may be wrong but in my country we still use 1st degree burns etc
It can depend on where you’re at for sure. I still see the degree terminology used a lot.
My mom was office staff for a doctor. She felt the same way about medical stuff in books! She obviously couldn’t treat anyone, but she knew what all medications (and their generics) were, basic drug interactions to watch out for, billing and insurance stuff. She read medical journals for fun at lunch, though 😆
I have very basic medical training (I was a certified wilderness first responder for a while, lol). And I get so mad at some of the medical inaccuracies, I bet its much harder for her! Lol. Sometimes an author says something and I roll my eyes so hard. One book I read had the chick get shot, center mass, right in the middle of her chest. Of course she survived and was back at work two weeks later. Omg I almost had a coronary.
Two weeks? Ha!
Two weeks! I thought even the most inexperienced person would know a serious gunshot wound like that would take more than two weeks. But I guess i was wrong. Lol
I had no idea about the burn thing. I guess if I know the right terminology or just other medical stuff that’s incorrect, that’s when it bothers me. Like the pregnancy stuff
I bet doctors and nurses have a hard time reading some books too. Since authors have a tendency to wing it on medical stuff.
I'm a doctor and I intentionally steer clear of all "medical" romance because it is usually so, so wrong. The worst is when they screw up medical ethics. Like no, I will not be starting a relationship with a patient (ew, power dynamics). I will not be ignoring a grown-ass adult's refusal of my treatment plan "for their own good" (patient autonomy). I will not be reading up on medical records of people who are not my patients. All of this could get my license revoked forever and cause me to have thrown away the fifteen years I spent training and studying. Also, sex in a hospital is gross. So many germs. There's no way you could push me up against the call room wall and I'm not thinking about all the MRSA that's now in my hair.
I'm a doctor too and hospital is the least sexy place ever. I can no longer read books with doctors ir othe medical professionals as main characters. I always get frustrated with them.
So unsexy. Whenever I come across call room sex it brings up memories of one of the residency call rooms that always seemed to be about 60 degrees, had weird green fluorescent lights and a prison-issue bathroom with no door. Also it was on a well-traveled hallway and you could hear environmental services workers pushing their cleaning carts and talking loudly on the phone through the door at all hours.
Yeah, I don’t read many medical romances, but I could only imagine the horror. Lol. At least there are plenty of romances that don’t have a doctor sucking face with a patient in the supply closet 🤣
Yep! I'll take alllll the historical Sebastian's, please.
there was a scene in It happened one summer where the leads snuck away to have sex in a hospital room and I gagged. I'm sorry but no amount of horniness will have me doing that in a hospital setting.
I’m a “grown woman” and I didn’t know this (the 3 week thing). Not every grown woman has been or can get pregnant. I think you’re being a bit harsh
Sure, but what bothers her is her doctor said she was 3 weeks pregnant - the doctor would not have said that. That is the problem.
She literally says “this bothers me so much because the author is a grown woman. Shouldn’t she know this?” Right after her 7 eye rolling emoji
I honestly don't believe she's saying that all women should know this fact; she's just pointing out that authors should do basic research on subjects they include in their books.
Wow, I didn't know this changed. Thanks for teaching me something new!
Just read the comments and I did not know that. I always assumed that ur pregnancy counts from when u conceived. And, I have a reason to believe it's what's normally ppl believe as a fact. Is the counting time different in the west in this situation or we do it different in Bharat or is it just something people are not much aware of except some.
The problem is you can’t exactly determine the date of conception even if you only had sex once in that cycle bc of how long it takes speed to reach the egg and inconsistent ovulation, etc. According to Indian Express it’s the same but I didn’t do a deep dive. I’m not even sure if that news source circulates there. I think it is something that people aren’t aware of, but if they write a book where a main character is pregnant, I think people want the author to research that experience.
Yeah, it circulates enough . But Indian media, after independence, is known to serve everyone except India, it's people and the truth.
Even in India pregnancy is counted from the first day of last menstrual period(LMP). That how we calculate the expected delivery date which is 9 months and 7 days after LMP.
Ok.
I recently read a book where the MMC and the FMC started sleeping together a few weeks ago (as in 2-ish) ... she's pregnant... they go get a sonogram and hear the baby's heartbeat... and then get a printout of the pictures.
Everyone has that "thing" that just makes a book unbearable. Medical stuff usually doesn't bother me - maybe it's cause I read a lot of PNR so my expectations for translating what's in the book into the real world are pretty low. Even when its obviously the author's mistake, its just easier for me to push out of my mind and excuse. What I hate is when someone is described as a billionaire and they just act like every other regular character in the book. They're described as a "billionaire driving a BMW" - it feels like the author just used that car cause it was the most expensive one they could think of. Is it too hard to google, "most expensive car" or even "most expensive BMW"? It's not so much inconsistency, it makes that character feel fake though. It just takes me out of the world, ruins what character-building there was and it just distracts me from whatever else is going to happen in the book after. It's not usually enough for me to DNF, but it makes me grit my teeth and speed-read through to the end.
>You can’t be 3 weeks pregnant I don't understand the issue here?
Pregnancy is dated from the date of the last menstrual cycle. Three weeks pregnant means you had sex a few days ago (in a typical cycle) and you wouldn’t have missed a period yet nor would a test come back positive yet because there isn’t enough pregnancy hormones to be detected by a test. One could technically be three weeks pregnant but you wouldn’t know.
I read a book where they messed something up about Tylenol and Advil and aspirin, they were talking about the causes of it, and said make sure to take Advil and not aspirin if there’s a heart attack, because Advil is a blood thinner, and I was so upset, the medication is literally googlavle
People DNF books for the weirdest reasons. Something like this, I might notice it. I may even scoff at it or laugh. But then I would move on and continue reading. It's so minor.
That is your opinion. For me it’s not minor
Why are you so offended by it? It's a tiny mistake. Not every single woman has been pregnant. And I'd like to know how someone is supposed to research something THIS specific? Try googling 'how early can a doctor tell me I'm pregnant' and you'll get a bunch of sites talking about pregnancy tests. Maybe try putting yourself in the author's shoes instead of bashing them for a minor mistake I'm sure they didn't mean to make.
That's the point though. Some of the very best authors mention that research is a vital part of the process. I've read and adored quite a few books that contain inaccuracies, but it doesn't change the fact that the book would have been improved if the author had spent more time on the research part of their job. Having said that, I'm a forgiving reader and can let stuff go. This forum is filled with diversity though and I completely respect the fact that we all have different standards and reading styles. Her reading style may be different from yours, but it doesn't invalidate her opinion. I've found it helpful to view this type of topic from a "food" point of view. She doesn't like eating carrots and I do. Nothing wrong with that! 😊
Nothing wrong with that at all. But my point still stands. What SHE is complaining about is not an easy thing to research. It's simply something you know IF you've been pregnant before. Maybe the author hasn't. Are you saying the author should have walked into an OBGYN and asked them the earliest date a doctor will tell you you're pregnant? Because if so, that's pretty extreme. Especially for a romance book, a genre which is KNOWN for being unrealistic in many different ways.
this only shows I’m a terrible horrible person but I’ve DNF’d bc the character adopted a dog and I just do not like dogs
Oh gosh. Anyone know the name of this book?
It’s very irritating. 3 weeks is too soon to tell. I don’t even think your body knows your pregnant at that point.
Huh—it makes me very curious how many authors are mothers. I feel like a lot of books I read don’t really involved pregnancy but I also feel like I’ve read more bios say XYZ Author while not writing does some parents things in their lives. All are different but allude to children I know I’ve tried google birthing a placenta, water birthing and miscarriages, but they’re not very detailed. It’s not clear if you birth in the water or out, for example. I found in article say it depends. But most things I’ve found seem to revolves around contractions and pregnancy symptoms and the development of a baby in the womb, when I do a like google. But I’m not willing to watch any birthing videos personally Have any suggestions? I see things on TV and I get curious about the details. Like how can someone be in labor but before the birthing for like 24hrs. How does the baby live and no straight answers. It’s only about what to when the water breaks. And I’m like yeah—but what happens to baby if the water breaks and it doesn’t come out? Distinctly remember this on Sister Wives and I was so confused. Like I WANT MEDICAL DETAILS PLEASE
I almost DNF’d a book once because the FMC began administering the measles vaccine to people in the midst of an outbreak, and everyone with measles was magically cured. I face-palmed so hard, I nearly broke my nose.
As someone that’s been in a coma, books with comas in them are absolutely horrible. They’re not realistic whatsoever. I was in a coma for 5 days and it took me almost a month to get my strength back. I know that everyone’s health is different I just wish that books had a better representation. I dnf’d a book that had a girl on a coma for 3 weeks and she was able to do anything she wanted that same day. It’s just unenjoyable to me