I agree with the anti-woman sentiment as a father, and I will give you a few examples. As soon as a woman is pregnant, there are countless things off the table:

I agree with the anti-woman sentiment as a father, and I will give you a few examples. As soon as a woman is pregnant, there are countless things off the table: no cheese, no caffiene, no wine or drinking of any kind, no deli meats, no sushi, etc. Some of those are nebulous and out of date - deli meat and cheese in particular. They are recommended to be avoided because of listeria risks, but how often have you heard of listeria outbreaks in cheese or deli meat? This was more common in the 50s when standards were lower. Now I see listeria outbreaks more often in packaged salads that are processed en masse. But the restrictions never go away, just added. The reigning idea is "why risk it"? This applies to almost everything from day one of pregnancy through childhood. Pregnant women are told to avoid countless things (including most medication) and heavily modify their behavior (avoid milk, tomatoes, grains etc.) for infinitesimal or non-existent benefits. When you dig into the source of the advice, most of the time it comes from the fact running studies on pregnant women is very litigious so drug companies simply recommend "avoid" and wash their hands of the problem. Other countries have very different guidelines and procedures. that's just the tip of the iceberg in the U.S. The entire birthing experience is built around saving the baby and the mother is an afterthought. This is shown in statistics where the death rate rate of mothers is higher than in many 3rd world countries. We keep finding more ways to keep babies alive (healthy or not) and force babies to be born (wanted or not). Very little thought is given to the holistic and human goal of the entire enterprise of having children and that is extremely damaging for not just mothers but fathers and the extended family and communities in general.