To Justin Bieber After His Pregnancy Prank, From a Woman Who Lost Her Baby

Yesterday, Justin Bieber posted an ultrasound to his Instagram page with no caption, leading his followers to believe that his wife Hailey is pregnant. After two more posts about this “pregnancy,” it came out that it was, in fact, an April Fools’ joke.

In 2012, I prematurely gave birth to my first child, Robby, at 23 weeks gestation due to incompetent cervix. He only lived for two hours. I have also lost babies due to miscarriage. Through my nonprofit, I am in contact daily with women who are experiencing the loss of a child and the heartbreak that comes with that loss.

Pregnancy and infant loss affects 1 in 4 women, and 1 in 8 women experience infertility. Pretending to be pregnant might be funny to some people, but to a lot of women, this isn’t a joking matter.

For many women, pregnancy is something they are yearning to experience. Other women are mourning the child they should be “announcing to the world.” Other women, like me, do not find it funny because we have experienced an April Fools’ Day fresh after the loss of a child. We know the feeling of seeing something we yearned for so much be the punchline of a joke.

Sure, some people might think this pregnancy joke was funny. However, there are so many more original April Fools’ days jokes to use. McDonald’s announced the McPickle: funny! Hidden Valley Ranch announced the birthday cake flavor dressing: funny! Both of these April Fools’ jokes were funny without being offensive and insensitive.

Pregnancy is not a punchline; step up your game, Justin Bieber.